Inflammatory Breast Cancer
Clinical Findings
- skin erythema
- edema (peau d'orange)
- browny breast induration
- warmth
- asymmetric enlargement.
Extensive lymphovascular invasion by tumor emboli⇒involves the superficial dermal plexus of vessels in the papillary and high reticular dermis
It's important to distinguish inflammatory breast cancers vs LABC with secondary lymphatic congestion.
- Neglected primary tumors can also lead to erythema, edema, warmth, and asymmetric enlargement, particularly when bulky axillary adenopathy impedes the normal lymphatic flow from the breast.
- Inflammatory→ rapid onset, LABC→ long interval between the first symptom and the presentation for medical treatment.
- 70% at presentation local dis.
- Usually high grade and ER NEG, but HER2 same
- Before chemo era → almost uniformly fatal
- < 5% survived past 5 years
- Median survival time for such patients was <15 months
- Introduction of doxorubicin-based chemotherapy
- Recent improve
- Local control rates for patients treated with chemotherapy, mastectomy, and postmastectomy radiation now approach 70% to 80%, and 5-year survival rates are 30% to 40%
page revision: 2, last edited: 15 Oct 2012 03:37