Have you heard of Inflammatory Breast Cancer?

Question

My friend sent this to me and it freaks me out. It's pretty scary that this type of cancer cannot be detected by a mamogram and most women would just think they had a rash or a bug bite. It kills almost everyone who gets it because they don't know until it's too late. I tried to attach the video link but it wont work. If you want more info give me your email address and I will send it to you. If you don't want to do that, then please look for all the information you can on the net and pass it on, the life you save might be your own or someone you love dearly.

Answer 1

Inflammatory breast cancer is a unique and uncommon type of breast cancer. Inflammatory cancers typically appear swollen, warm, and cause induration of the breast. This occurs because cancer cells may block the lymph vessels in the skin of the breast. Biopsies often reveal that patients have lymphatic invasion beneath the skin by the cancer.

Most new treatments are developed in clinical trials. Clinical trials are studies that evaluate the effectiveness of new drugs or treatment strategies. The development of more effective cancer treatments requires that new and innovative therapies be evaluated with cancer patients. Participation in a clinical trial may offer access to better treatments and advance the existing knowledge about treatment of this cancer. Clinical trials are available for most stages of cancer. Patients who are interested in participating in a clinical trial should discuss the risks and benefits of clinical trials with their physician. To ensure that they are receiving optimal treatment, it is important for patients to stay informed regarding new treatments and the results of clinical trials.

Inflammatory breast cancer generally grows rapidly and the cancer cells often spread to other parts of the body. Treatment for inflammatory breast cancer usually involves multi-modality therapy consisting of local treatment to remove or destroy the cancer in the breast and systemic treatment to kill cancer cells that may have already spread to other parts of the body. Systemic treatment (chemotherapy, hormonal therapy) is generally given before local treatment with surgery and/or radiation therapy. The usual sequence of treatment involves chemotherapy followed by surgery, radiation therapy, further chemotherapy, and hormonal therapy. With this approach, approximately 30% of women survive 5 years without cancer recurrence. The use of chemotherapy and local-regional radiotherapy has reduced the risk of cancer progressing at or near the site of origin, but the majority of patients experience cancer recurrence at distant sites.

High-dose chemotherapy and autologous stem cell transplantation has been incorporated into the overall treatment of women with inflammatory breast cancer. Several small clinical trials were published in 1998-99 that reported the results of incorporating high-dose chemotherapy into the overall treatment strategy of patients with inflammatory breast cancer. In general, patients were treated with a sequence of low-dose induction chemotherapy followed by high-dose chemotherapy and mastectomy, radiation and hormonal treatment with Nolvadex® (tamoxifen). Some doctors have performed mastectomy after induction chemotherapy instead of after high-dose chemotherapy. Approximately 64% of patients are reported to survive without recurrence of their cancer 2.5 to 3 years from treatment. Recently, doctors from France utilizing this treatment regimen have reported 57% cancer-free survival rates 5 years from treatment, with no patients relapsing after 3 years.

Researchers compared the results of intensive chemotherapy and high-dose chemotherapy approaches in patients with inflammatory breast cancer. Four years from treatment, 76% of patients treated with high-dose chemotherapy were alive without cancer recurrence, compared to 58% of patients treated with non-high-dose chemotherapy. Since inflammatory breast cancer only accounts for 1-4% of all breast cancers, large clinical studies comparing one treatment strategy to another have not been and are unlikely to ever be performed.