Inflammatory Breast Cancer Essay

Inflammatory breast cancer is a less frequently occurring type of cancer that is very aggressive in nature, as the cancer cells block the local lymph vessels of the breast skin, making the breast appears inflamed, swollen and red. In the US, about 1 to 5 % of all breast malignancies are of this type. The term inflammatory in “IBC” is really not a correct term for this cancer, as the tissues are really not inflamed but superficially appear to be inflamed.Inflammatory Breast Cancer Essay One of the main problems associated with the IBC type of cancer is that many people may consider it to be a mild breast infection, and may not visit the doctor to provide relief. Frequently, the patient may consume antibiotics in order to seek relief from the so-thought-of infection.

However, antibiotics would not work for this condition. The prognosis and survival rate are much poorer for this condition than other form of breast cancers. The symptoms of IBC include swollen and reddened appearance of the breast, breast pain, breast mass, unusual warmth, itching, tenderness, enlargement of the regional lymph nodes, flattening of the nipples, etc. A close differential diagnosis needs to be conducted to differentiate it from inflammatory conditions such as mastitis and other types of breast cancers.