inflammatory breast cancer

Inflammatory breast Cancer

Inflammatory breast cancer occurs when the cancer cells block the lymph vessels from the breast skin. It is said to be inflammatory since the breast becomes red and swollen.

Inflammatory breast cancer affects young women and women of African descent more often.

Inflammatory breast cancer is rare and aggressive, which means it develops and spreads rapidly. In most cases, inflammatory breast cancer has already spread to the lymph nodes or other organs when diagnosed.

Symptoms
Inflammatory breast cancer begins to cause symptoms soon after appearing. There are many symptoms at the same time.

The most common symptom of inflammatory breast cancer is a change in skin color on at least one third of the breast. The skin becomes very red or purplish. Here are other symptoms of inflammatory breast cancer:

swollen breast
Padded skin that looks like orange peel (orange peel)
Thickening of breast skin or breast tissue
Breast that is warm to the touch
Breast size Increase
Mamelonnaires changes, like a nipple that suddenly begins to point inward (inverted nipple)
Breast tenderness or pain
Itching or burning sensation
Armpit mass (axillary hollow) or near the clavicle
The symptoms of inflammatory breast cancer are very similar to the symptoms of breast tissue infection called mastitis, which is more common in lactating women. Doctors may prescribe antibiotics to treat mastitis, but waiting for antibiotics to take effect can delay the diagnosis of inflammatory breast cancer. So it is often diagnosed at an advanced stage. Inflammatory breast cancer is considered to be stage 3b breast cancer, or locally advanced, which means that it has begun to invade nearby tissues.

Diagnosis
Inflammatory breast cancer can be difficult to diagnose since this type of cancer usually does not form mass within which can be palpated by the doctor or revealed to mammography. The diagnosis of inflammatory breast cancer depends a great deal on the presence of signs and symptoms and the speed at which they occur.

The following tests are usually used to diagnose breast cancer, including inflammatory breast cancer. Many tests to diagnose cancer are also used to determine the stage, which is how far the disease has progressed. Your doctor may also take other exams to check your health condition and help plan your treatment:

Physical exam
Clinical Breast Exam
Diagnostic mammography
Biopsy
Hormone receptor status analysis
HER2 Status Analysis
Learn more about breast cancer diagnosis.

Treatments

If you are suffering from inflammatory breast cancer, your healthcare team will develop a treatment plan just for you. It will be based on your health and specific information about cancer.

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is the first treatment given for inflammatory breast cancer. It is used to destroy cancer cells that are present in the breast and anywhere else in the body if there are any. It is administered before the surgery, so-called neoadjuvant treatment. It is also administered for a period of time as a result of surgery (adjuvant treatment).

Chemotherapy for inflammatory breast cancer usually involves a combination of medications since research shows that it is more effective than the administration of a single drug at a time. The types of chemotherapy used include a anthracycline and a taxane. These medications are given one after the other because if they are administered at the same time, the risk of heart disease increases.

The following chemotherapeutic associations may be used:

CEF – Cyclophosphamide (Cytoxan, Procytox), Epirubicin (Pharmorubicin) and 5-fluorouracil (Adrucil, 5-FU)

AC > Taxol – doxorubicin (Adriamycin) and cyclophosphamide, followed by paclitaxel (Taxol)

Taxol > FAC – paclitaxel followed by cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin and 5-fluorouracil

After several cycles of chemotherapy, you will have a mammogram so that we know how effective the treatment is. If the first combination of chemotherapeutic agents has not been effective, you may be administered others.

Learn more about breast cancer chemotherapy.

Targeted treatment

Trastuzumab (Herceptin) is a type of targeted medicine. It is administered with chemotherapy if the cancer is HER2 positive. Up to 60% of inflammatory breast cancers are HER2 positive.

Learn more about HER2 status analysis and targeted breast cancer treatment.

Surgery

Surgery is proposed if chemotherapy reduces the size of the tumor. The following types of surgery are used for inflammatory breast cancer.

Modified radical mastectomy is used to treat inflammatory breast cancer that has not spread to other parts of the body. Doctors must remove the whole breast since the risk of recurrence of cancer is high. This is why we do not offer conservative breast surgery in the presence of inflammatory breast cancer.

The axillary node recess allows the lymph nodes to be removed from the armpit. We do this surgery because inflammatory breast cancer has often already spread to these lymph nodes when diagnosed.

Learn more about breast cancer surgery.

Radiotherapy

Radiotherapy is usually administered after breast inflammatory cancer surgery. It reduces the risk of cancer recurrence in the area where the breast has been removed. Radiation is directed towards the muscles and lymph nodes of the thorax, shoulder and armpit.

Learn more about breast cancer radiation.

Hormone therapy

Hormonal hormone receptors (positive hormone receptor tumours) can be offered to women with inflammatory breast cancer. The type of hormone therapy offered will vary depending on whether you are menopausal or not.

Tamoxifen (Nolvadex, Tamofen) is available to women who are not yet postmenopausal (premenopausal).

Anastrozole (Arimidex) and Letrozole (Femara) are aromatase inhibitors. One of these drugs will be proposed to postmenopausal women who have been through menopause.

Learn more about hormone therapy for breast cancer.

Prognosis and survival

If you are suffering from inflammatory breast cancer, you may be asking questions about your prognosis. A prognosis is the act by which the Doctor best evaluates how the cancer will affect a person and how he or she would react to treatment. Prognosis and survival depend on many factors. Only a doctor who is well acquainted with your health history, the type of cancer you are diagnosed with, the stage and characteristics of the disease, the treatments chosen and the treatment response can examine all of these data in conjunction with the statistics Survival to arrive at a prognosis.

Inflammatory breast cancer has a lower survival rate than other types of breast cancer. According to U.S. statistics from 1988 to 2001, relative survival after 5 years of women with inflammatory breast cancer is 34%, which means that a woman diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer would, on average, have 34% chance To live 5 years as a result of his diagnosis compared to the people who are part of the general population.

If you are suffering from inflammatory breast cancer, discuss your prognosis with your healthcare team.