Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC) What Is Inflammatory Breast Cancer? Women with inflammatory breast cancer (IBC)—the most aggressive form of the disease—make up less than 6 percent of all the women diagnosed with breast cancer in the United States each year. IBC has a different phenotype, which means it looks and acts differently than other forms of breast cancer.
Most breast cancers are detected when a lump is found through self-exam, clinical breast exam, or mammography. In contrast, the first signs of IBC are usually visual: The breast becomes red, swollen, and warm, and looks infected. In some instances, the skin around the breast will begin to pucker or to develop dimples, somewhat like the skin of an orange, and the nipple will retract and lay flat against the breast.
Swollen lymph nodes under the arm or above the collarbone are another symptom of IBC. Because these symptoms are similar to those of a breast infection called mastitis, doctors will first try to treat the signs of infection with antibiotics. If the antibiotics don't cure the infection, the doctor will then do a punch biopsy of the skin to see if cancer cells are present. Because mastitis is much more common than IBC, this remains the best approach. It would not make sense to biopsy all women who have a red breast or swollen lymph nodes.
IBC can spread rapidly from the breast to the lymph nodes, and it quickly metastasizes (spreads to other parts of the body). In fact, because IBC is so aggressive, it usually has metastasized by the time it has been diagnosed. Treatment for IBC typically begins with chemotherapy, and is then followed by surgery, radiation, and hormone therapy for women with hormone-sensitive tumors. Even with the best treatment only 45 percent of women with IBC are alive and have no sign of the disease five years after their diagnosis.
More is continually being learned about IBC. In 2000, researchers at the University of Michigan discovered a gene that contributes to IBC. The gene, RhoC GTPase, previously had been linked to cancer of the liver, skin, and pancreas. The findings, published in the October 15, 2000, issue of the journal Cancer Research, may ultimately lead to new forms of treatment for IBC. In another important discovery, Dr. Sanford Barsky, of the University of California, Los Angeles, has developed an animal model of IBC. This will also help advance scientific understanding of this rare form of breast cancer.
