• Basal-like breast cancer: Basal-like is a breast cancer subtype defined by the genes its cells switch on, which resemble the basal cells lining the milk ducts.
• Lumpectomy (breast-conserving surgery): Removing only the tumour with a rim of normal breast, keeping the breast; almost always followed by radiotherapy.
• Grade: How abnormal the cancer cells look under the microscope, from grade 1 (close to normal, slow) to grade 3 or 4 (wildly abnormal, fast).
• Mastectomy: Removing the whole breast, either for cancer or preventively in BRCA1/2 carriers, where bilateral risk-reducing mastectomy cuts breast cancer risk by 90% or more.

Biomarker results to ask for: Triple-negative receptor status with low grade, MYB-NFIB fusion or MYB overexpression, Myoepithelial markers (p63, CD117) on the basaloid component.

Bring copies of scan reports, pathology and blood results, and a list of every medicine and supplement.

• Localised disease: Surgery with clear margins, radiotherapy after breast conservation, and no chemotherapy for the classical type in the European working group consensus; the solid-basaloid variant is managed as high-grade triple-negative disease. (Lumpectomy (breast-conserving surgery), Mastectomy, Sentinel lymph node biopsy)

From the standard of care recorded for this cancer; which apply depends on your stage and biomarkers. Ask which the team recommends and why.