Inflammatory Breast Cancer

Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is a rare, fast-growing type of breast cancer. It happens when cancerous cells block lymphatic vessels in one of your breasts. The blocked vessels cause inflammation.

Inflammation makes your breast look swollen or discolored. The disease may thicken your breast skin or make it look pitted like an orange peel.

IBC can spread rapidly. It moves from lymphatic vessels in your breast to nearby breast tissue and lymph nodes or other areas of your body. You’ll need treatment right away if tests show you have this type of breast cancer.

Symptoms

IBC doesn’t cause breast lumps like other types of breast cancer or benign breast disease. But it can cause these noticeable symptoms, which develop rapidly and don’t go away:

• Breast dimpling
• Bruising or rash that spreads over one-third of your breast
• Enlarged breast so that one breast looks bigger than the other
• Inverted nipple or retracted nipple (a nipple that points inward)
• Pain, swelling, itchiness, firmness or tenderness
• Skin discoloration that may look red or pink or purple, depending on your skin tone
• Swollen lymph nodes near your collarbone or under your arm
• Warmth or burning sensation

Causes

Experts don’t know the exact cause of inflammatory breast cancer. They do know that having obesity may increase your risk. Having obesity means your body mass index (BMI) is 30 or higher. Researchers are studying other issues that may increase your risk.

Complications

Inflammatory breast cancer can spread (metastasize) very quickly. It may spread to other parts of your body, like your brain, lungs or liver.

How doctors diagnose inflammatory breast cancer

A healthcare provider will do a physical examination. They’ll ask about your symptoms, including when you first noticed changes in your breast.

They may do the following tests:

• Mammogram to look for IBC signs, like thickening breast skin or unusual amounts of calcium (calcification)
• Breast ultrasound that may detect changes in your breast tissue

Your provider may refer you to a surgical oncologist for a breast biopsy. They’ll remove a small piece of tissue from your breast. A medical pathologist will test the sample for cancerous cells. If they find cancerous cells, your pathologist will check for receptors. These are special proteins that help cancerous cells grow.

Biopsy results can help your cancer care team determine the cancer stage, like whether it has spread to other areas of your body, including your bones, liver or lungs. Often, the cancer is spreading by the time most women receive their diagnosis.

You may have other tests so your providers can check for signs that cancer has spread. Those tests may include:

• Bone scan to look for cancer in your bones
• CT scan to look for cancer in your soft tissues and bones.
• MRI to look for an abnormal mass, or large amounts of calcium or other changes in your breast tissue
• PET scan uses radioactive medicines (tracers) to create images of your organs and tissues

How is inflammatory breast cancer treated?

Healthcare providers may use surgery and anti-cancer medicines to treat regional IBC. This is cancer that hasn’t spread to other areas of your body. Your care team may use a step-by-step approach:

1. Neoadjuvant therapy, to shrink cancerous cells before surgery. You may receive chemotherapy or other treatments. Chemotherapy kills cells that grow very fast, such as cancer cells. Your provider may use other medications, including ones that focus on certain proteins in cancer cells.
2. Mastectomy, to remove the breast that IBC affects. Your surgical oncologist may also remove lymph nodes in your armpit and near your breast.
3. Adjuvant therapy, to help keep cancer from coming back after treatment. Cancer may come back in the same area where it was before or it may spread to other areas of your body. Adjuvant therapy may include more chemotherapy or treatments like endocrine therapy. This treatment blocks the hormones that help cancer grow.

You may have other cancer treatments if IBC spreads to other areas of your body.

Your care team may also recommend that you take part in a clinical trial. A clinical trial is a study that evaluates the safety and effectiveness of new cancer treatments. Treatments that are successful in clinical trials often become the standard treatment approaches.

When should I seek care?

Inflammatory breast cancer can come back. Changes in the skin on your breast or swelling may mean you need additional treatment. Additionally, if you have any changes in your body that last two weeks or longer, you should let your doctor know.

What’s the survival rate for inflammatory breast cancer?

The American Cancer Society lists two sets of IBC survival rates. One set is for regional IBC. The other set refers to distant IBC.

Regional IBC means the cancer has only metastasized (spread) to the breast and/or lymph nodes nearby. Distant IBC is breast cancer that has metastasized to other areas of your body, such as your bones, liver or lung. When it has spread to a distant part of your body, it is often stage 4.

According to the Cancer Society, 52% of women with IBC were alive five years after their diagnosis. That survival rate drops to 19% when cancer spreads to other areas of your body.

Cancer survival rates are estimates. These estimates come from information about other people’s experiences with IBC. What’s true for them may not be true for you. Ask your care team to explain what survival rate data means in your case.

Is there anything I can do to feel better?

Inflammatory breast cancer treatment can be exhausting and affect your appetite. Eating well can help combat cancer fatigue by boosting your energy levels. Regular gentle activity like walking, stretching or yoga may also ease exhaustion.

You may benefit from receiving palliative care if you’re having issues with cancer symptoms or treatment side effects. Palliative care focuses on managing cancer symptoms and treatment side effects.