Inflammatory Breast Cancer Research Foundation

In December 1996, an e-mail list was introduced focusing on education and emotional support for inflammatory breast cancer patients, their friends and families. That e-mail list and website remains and is known as IBC Support, http://www.ibcsupport.org, owned and operated by Pete Bevin in Toronto, Canada.

In 1998 advocacy for meaningful research directed specifically at IBC was begun by a group of those who met via the IBC Support List. This small group started the IBC Research Foundation e-mail list. By 1999 that fledgling effort resulted in the incorporation of the non-profit Inflammatory Breast Cancer Research Foundation, a tax-deductible 501(c) (3) corporation.

The IBC Research Foundation conducts its business and pursues its mission and goals in the latest 21st Century cyber fashion with no real estate, no building space with high rents, and with volunteers all over the country working out of their home on their own computers.  We use the Internet to increase the awareness of IBC and its symptoms through our website. We use e-mail lists to connect the geographically wide-spread group of volunteers pursuing the mission and goals of the Foundation. Those same volunteers distribute many thousands of brochures throughout North America each year. We provide a nationwide toll-free telephone number (1-877-stop-IBC or 1-877-786-7422) for those seeking a direct connection with a human being or who have no  internet access. We also attend many cancer conferences, mini-conferences, and symposiums each year to remain current with research and researchers, introducing many of them to the most aggressive breast cancer, IBC, while encouraging these researchers to include IBC biospecimen samples and/or patients in their research.

Our Mission

To assist scientists and researchers in their quest to determine the definitive causes of inflammatory breast cancer. The Inflammatory Breast Cancer Research Foundation seeks to assist them in their work so effective and meaningful detection and diagnosis, prevention and treatment can be pursued and achieved.

Our Goals Include:

• To ignite interest in the study and research of inflammatory breast cancer at every level. From researchers to physicians, educators and scientists, the IBC Research Foundation seeks to support and inspire those seeking to identify the cause(s) of inflammatory breast cancer.
• To support research, the purpose of which is to reach an unambiguous definition of inflammatory breast cancer. The clinical/pathological definition in use since the late 1800s with little change in the 1900s is ambiguous and doesn’t result in a diagnosis of all cases of IBC. By using research methods available in the 21st Century, an unambiguous definition is now possible, assuring with high certainty that all cases of IBC will be correctly diagnosed, and possible sub-types of IBC identified, which may lead to better treatment outcomes.
• To increase awareness of IBC for primary care physicians, nursing professionals, and medical technicians in order to minimize the time from presentation of symptoms to correct diagnosis of inflammatory breast cancer.
• To increase public awareness in an effort to encourage women to seek medical attention for common inflammatory breast cancer symptoms soon after they appear and to empower patients, caregivers, families and friends to pursue meaningful paths in support of diagnosis and treatment of inflammatory breast cancer.