What every woman should know about breast cancer

[Guest guest]

For all the women in the group. I was taken aback when someone sent me this

very important webcam, I didn't know anything about this particular type of

breast cancer, and although it is rare, it is also deadly and women ignore it

because there are no lumps involved and it doesn't show up in a mamogram. It was

not even on the Komen web site, but they are supposed to update it to

include IBC. This is the only reference I found at the Komen site: Summary:

Introduction: Inflammatory breast cancer is a rare but very severe form of

breast cancer. In the past, with treatment of surgery and/or radiation therapy,

only a small percentage of women with inflammatory breast cancer lived longer

than 5 years. Five-year overall survival rates for inflammatory breast cancer

now range from around 30 percent to around 70 percent with combined modality

treatment (see studies below).

http://komonews.s3.amazonaws.com/ibc/komo_ibc.wmv

Treatment of inflammatory breast cancer may include the following:

Systemic chemotherapy.

a.. Systemic chemotherapy followed by surgery (breast-conserving surgery or

total mastectomy), with lymph node dissection followed by radiation therapy.

Additional systemic therapy (chemotherapy, hormone therapy, or both) may be

given.

b.. Clinical trials testing new anticancer drugs, new drug combinations, and

new ways of giving treatment.

c.. http://www.cancer-info.com/breast.htm

Inflammatory breast cancer is a rare but very aggressive type of breast cancer

in which the cancer cells block the lymph vessels in the skin of the breast.

This type of breast cancer is called “inflammatory” because the breast often

looks swollen and red, or “inflamed.” IBC accounts for 1 to 5 percent of all

breast cancer cases in the United States. Participation in clinical trials is a

treatment option for many patients. A 5-year survival rate for patients with

IBC is between 25 and 50 percent, which is significantly lower than the survival

rate for patients with non-IBC breast cancer.

http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Sites-Types/IBC#1

May none of us fall prey to any breast cancer,

Lottie