HR stands for Hormone Receptor. Neg is short for, "Negative" and in this context would mean, "not present." So, "HR Neg" means that there are no hormone receptors.
The significance of this in breast cancer is that it tells the doctors that this specific cancer would not benefit from treatments that are designed to attack a certain way, and that other treatment pathways are indicated instead.
HR negative, or HER2 negative (from the Chat forum) does not mean that. It's a little like trying to decide what would remove a stain from a surface. Some stains are best attacked with a mixture of baking soda and salt, with some it's better to use toothpaste. Testing for different hormone receptors tells the doctors what "stain remover" they should use.
One thing that surprised me after my cancer diagnosis was that the treatments used have little to do with how dangerous the cancer is. For example, a person with invasive breast cancer might need a lumpectomy, whereas someone with a pre-cancer might be advised to get a mastectomy; one person might have chemo to shrink the tumour before surgery, another person might have surgery first, even though they have a higher grade tumour etc. It’s all individual and based on what gives that person the best chance. Gone are the days when they just did a mastectomy and kept their fingers crossed. Now they find out the weaknesses and strength of your tumour(s) to have a specific plan to defeat them. And often, like me, the plan has to change as they learn more about it, but that’s ok because it means their flexible. They don’t give up if at first they don’t succeed. Good luck for your treatment path.
