Aug 17, 2006 10:20 pm US/Central
A Look At Inflammatory Breast Cancer
by Karen Borta
DALLAS (CBS 11 News) ―
Lynn White remembers the moment she felt the pain. She was out of town when her left breast began to hurt so badly, it was difficult to wear a seatbelt. She thought it was an infection. But it only took a doctor moments to recognize it was much worse. White had inflammatory breast cancer.
"I thought it was nothing, and then I started doing some research. I thought, whoa. This is much worse than regular breast cancer," White recalls.
Inflammatory breast cancer, or IBC, is the most aggressive form of breast cancer. Dr. Debu Tripathy is the director of The Breast Cancer Research Program at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. He treated White's cancer.
It definitely has a higher mortality rate," Dr. Tripathy says. "Number one, when it's initially diagnosed, it tends to have a higher likelihood of having spread to the lymph nodes or already even having metastasized. And even stage for stage, so if you even fixed the size of two centimeters, it's by nature more aggressive even without having spread."
And what's so troubling is that it can be difficult to detect. In IBC cases there's usually no telltale lump, which is what women are told to look for during monthly breast self-exams. Instead, IBC grows in sheets that spread through the breast. And it's often missed by mammograms and ultrasounds.
"The most common symptoms of inflammatory breast cancer will be redness and swelling and sometimes pain," Dr. Tripathy says. "And keep in mind that for people who have darker skin, it may be difficult to appreciate the redness. And sometimes all people feel is warmth and swelling."
Dr. Tripathy says any breast redness and pain should be evaluated immediately. He says most times it will be an infection. But if antibiotics don't clear it within a week, then the woman should request a biopsy.
And there are other symptoms to look for. The woman in the medical photo seen above, had bruising that wouldn't go away.
Sometimes there's nipple retraction or flattening. Nipple discharge. Itching that won't go away. And a dimpling of the skin that may look like the skin of an orange.
By the time White's IBC was diagnosed, the cancer had spread to her liver. And she had a primary cancer on one of her kidneys. But she's one of the lucky ones. She responded well to the chemo and herceptin treatments. And now, 17 months after her diagnosis... "Last week I saw Dr. Tripathy and he told me I have no evidence of cancer in my body!" White reports.
So now instead of focusing on the disease that threatened to take her from her family, White can concentrate on her cherished granddaughter and a full life ahead.
(CBS 11 News)
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