Letter to Editor
The Pathology of Breast Cancer
George Alex*
Department of Breast Surgery, United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust, UK
*Corresponding author: George Alex, Department of Breast Surgery, United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust, UK
Published: 29 Nov, 2017
Cite this article as: Alex G. The Pathology of Breast
Cancer. Clin Surg. 2017; 2: 1765.
Letter to Editor
When reporting on a breast carcinoma specimen, it is required that reporting be done giving
information about several different aspects [1]. It is easy to be overwhelmed with the histopathology
data. The mnemonic “STINGER.COM” is meant as an aide memoire regarding the key things to be
reported on.
Type/Total size
Type i.e. Ductal, Lobular etc
Total size of tumour i.e. Invasive + DCIS
Invasion (Lymphovascular) i.e. Absent/Present
Nodes (involvement) e.g. 0/2, 2/5 etc
Grade i.e. 1, 2 or 3
Extent i.e. Localised, Multifocal, Multicentric etc
Receptors
ER e.g. 0/8, 8/8 etc
PR e.g. 0/8, 8/8 etc
HER 2 status
FISH status
Carcinoma in situ
Absent/present
Size in mm
Type i.e. DCIS, LCIS etc
Other pathology
Absent/Present
Type i.e. Paget’s, Atypical Ductal Hyperplasia etc
Margins/Microinvasion
Margins i.e. distance of disease from closest relevant margin
Microinvasion Absent/Present