Is Inflammatory Breast Cancer the Same Disease in Each Person Diagnosed?
Researchers and clinicians don’t know the answer to that question but hypothesize that there are “types,” “sub-types,” or “categories” of IBC. Typically, the sub-types hypothesized are divided by presentation at time of diagnosis: 1) clinical symptoms only, with no pathological confirmation finding tumor emboli (tightly packed clumps of tumor cells, like a bunch of grapes but very tightly packed together) in the dermal lymphatics of the affected breast; 2) pathological only, finding tumor emboli in the dermal lymphatics, without presentation of clinical symptoms; and 3) clinical and pathological.
In addition, most IBC patients are also designated as having triple negative breast cancer. The following is taken from the Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation web site: “It is only in the last few years that professionals studying breast cancer have concluded that breast cancer is not one disease, but many different forms of cancer all originating in the breast. Depending on its stage of diagnosis, triple negative breast cancer can be extremely aggressive and more likely to recur and metastasize than other subtypes of breast cancer.”
Please see also our information on breast pain.
Another way to categorize IBC is by age and gender at time of diagnosis:
- There is documented evidence of two cases in girls as young as 12-years-old, one of whom had not begun menstruation.
- There are several documented cases of male IBC.
- There are cases diagnosed during pregnancy or lactation.
- And there are cases that don’t fall into any of the first three categories, but are diagnosed in each of three menopausal periods of life: premenopausal, perimenopausal, and postmenopausal.
Beyond those categories, there are IBC cases that have special circumstances:
- 3 cases diagnosed in 10 months amongst 24 co-workers
- More than one case in the same family: mother-daughter, sisters, and 1st degree cousins
- IBC diagnosed in a breast with an implant
- IBC diagnosed post-hysterectomy, in some cases including oophorectomy
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