Early detection and immediate treatment can make have major impacts on inflammatory breast cancer care and patient outcomes.
“Inflammatory breast cancer is a very rare and aggressive form of breast cancer. Due to the non-specific symptoms, commonly, the diagnosis can be missed at the initial presentation,” says Margaret Gatti-Mays, MD, MPH, a medical oncologist who specializes in breast cancer, immunotherapy and early-stage clinical trials at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center - James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute.
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While relatively rare - “it accounts for less than two percent of all breast cancers,” Gatti-Mays says - inflammatory breast cancer can present unique challenges for patients and providers.
“Up to one-third of all inflammatory breast cancers will be metastatic when diagnosed,” Gatti-Mays says. “Only five percent of the more typical types of breast cancer we see are metastatic at the initial diagnosis.”
Among the reasons for the high rate of later-stage diagnoses are the aggressive biology of the tumors, as well as the prevalence of non-specific symptoms sometimes attributed to more common, non-cancerous conditions like mastitis and ductal ectasia.
“The onset of symptoms can be rapid, and often includes coloring of the breast that can be pink, red or purple and appear over one-third of the breast, as well as rapid swelling of the breast. Patients will often remark that their breast feels full and swollen and the skin looks like an orange peel,” Gatti-Mays says.
Benign condition like mastitis and ductal ectasia are initially treated with antibiotics, so Gatti-Mays recommends immediate follow-up if those therapies - or treatments for other conditions - are ineffective.
“If the symptoms don’t improve, I encourage women to contact breast cancer specialists like our team at the Stefanie Spielman Comprehensive Breast Center (SSCBC),” Gatti-Mays says. “We have a diagnostic clinic and patients can self-refer and get scheduled with an assessment and imaging if warranted. Because of how aggressive inflammatory breast cancer is, there’s a sense of urgency to get a biopsy, make a diagnosis and evaluate if it has spread.”
The SSCBC’s comprehensive approach to breast cancer care includes a team of experts who specialize in inflammatory breast cancer treatment, which can include surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and immunotherapy.
“Breast cancer care has become more complicated, and having a team of experts at a Comprehensive Cancer Center is important in order to identify patients who need to start treatment immediately,” Gatti-Mays says. “Patients with inflammatory breast cancer have much better outcomes than they did in the past, but we still have a long way to go and a lot to learn.”