Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC): What Is It?
Inflammatory breast cancer is aggressive, fast-growing breast cancer in which cancer cells infiltrate the breast’s skin and lymph vessels. It frequently results in no discernible tumour or lump that can be felt and isolated within the breast. However, symptoms appear when the lymph vessels are blocked by breast cancer cells.
What Are the Inflammatory Breast Cancer Symptoms?
Early signs of IBC include persistent itching and the appearance of a rash or minor irritation, similar to an insect bite. With dilation of the pores of the breast skin, the breast typically becomes red, swollen, and warm. The skin may appear pitted like an orange peel, and there may be nipple changes such as inversion, flattening, or dimpling.
Mastitis, a breast infection, can exhibit similar symptoms. If your primary care physician or gynaecologist diagnoses mastitis, but symptoms persist after one week of antibiotics, you should see a breast specialist.
How Are Inflammatory Breast Cancer Diagnosis And Treatment Performed?
Inflammatory breast cancer is classified as Stage 3 breast cancer and is diagnosed through clinical judgement and a biopsy by your doctor. A biopsy for inflammatory breast cancer is a biopsy of the breast skin.
If the pathology results show that breast cancer cells are present in the skin and dermal lymphatics of the breast skin, this confirms the diagnosis of inflammatory breast cancer.
IBC typically grows quickly and necessitates aggressive treatment. It’s the only type of breast cancer that necessitates immediate treatment, which begins with chemotherapy. Most oncologists recommend local and systemic treatment for the affected breast (whole-body treatment).
The regimen may include surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and hormone treatments. In recent years, aggressive treatment has significantly improved the survival rate of patients with inflammatory breast cancer.
