Treatment of Inflammatory Breast Cancer

This content has been reviewed and approved by

William J. Gradishar, MD FACP
Director, Breast Medical Oncology, Professor of Medicine
Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Inflammatory breast cancer is a unique and uncommon type of breast cancer. It accounts for only 1 percent to 4 percent of all breast cancers. This cancer is typically swollen, warm, and hard. These symptoms occur because the cancer cells can block the lymph vessels in the skin of your breast.

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Inflammatory breast cancer generally grows rapidly. Also, it often spreads to other parts of your body. Treatment for this type of cancer usually has two parts:

• Local treatment - This is to remove or kill the cancer in your breast. This treatment consists of surgery and/or radiation therapy.
• Systemic treatment - This is to kill cancer cells that may have already spread to other parts of your body. This type of treatment may consist of chemotherapy, antihormonal therapy, and/or targeted therapy such as Herceptin^® (trastuzumab) depending on the characteristics of the tumor.
  

Systemic treatment is generally given before local treatment. The usual sequence is chemotherapy, surgery, radiation therapy, more chemotherapy, and antihormonal therapy.

Treatment of inflammatory breast cancer usually begins with systemic chemotherapy, sometimes with  trastuzumab, followed by a mastectomy if the cancer is responding. This is usually followed by radiation therapy to the chest and regional lymph nodes, and additional systemic therapy as necessary.

Strategies to Improve Treatment

Depending on the stage of breast cancer you have, there may be numerous clinical trials under way to improve treatment.

Your doctor can recommend you for a clinical trial, or you can find one by going to http://www.cancer.gov/clinicaltrials.

When you participate in a clinical trial, you typically receive either the standard treatment for your stage of cancer or the experimental treatment. Your care is monitored carefully, although neither you nor your doctor will know which treatment you're receiving.