Inflammatory Breast Cancer Often Goes Undiagnosed
It’s a rare kind of breast cancer, but it’s also deadly.
Inflammatory Breast Cancer, or IBC, accounts for less than 5% of all breast cancer cases, but many women have never heard of it.
Doctor Laura Lee is the Medical Director at the Comprehensive Breast Cancer Center in Palm Springs.
She says it’s something women and their physicians should be aware of. Symptoms are a red, hot, swollen and tender breast.
The disease can easily be mis-diagnosed.
Part of what makes Inflammatory Breast Cancer so unusual is we’ve been taught to look for a lump in our breast, but with IBC it doesn’t always present with a mass, and it often doesn’t show up in a mammogram.
“Usually the way it’s described is the skins a little red, so its an easy thing to go to the doctor, particularly in a younger woman or if you’ve been breast feeding, and have it mis-diagnosed,” said Doctor Lee.
Inflammatory Breast Cancer is commonly mis-diagnosed at first as a breast infection, and doctors prescribe antibiotics.
When really what the patient needs is aggressive treatment: often including chemotherapy, surgery and radiation.
“It’s treated very aggressively because it is very agressive,” according to Doctor Lee.
Inflammatory Breast Cancer is different from other common kinds of breast cancer because by the time symptoms show up it’s already progressed to a dangerous level, usually stage 3 or 4.
That’s compared to the average woman with common kinds of breast cancer who often present in stage 1 or 2.
“Nowadays, early stage breast cancer should have a 95% survival rate,” Doctor Lee said. “But, when you get upwards into stage 4 cancers and you look at the 5 year survival rate, it drops down into probably 25 to 30 percent.”
The best tools of detection are still mammograms, regular doctor visits and self breast checks.
There has been a lot of confusion the last few years over how often and when women should get breast screenings. Doctor Lee recommends most women should go every year starting at 40.
