June 14, 2009: NYU Lagone Medical Center Researchers Identify Key Gene in Deadly Inflammatory Breast Cancer
Aggressive, deadly and often misdiagnosed, inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is the most lethal form of primary breast cancer, often striking women in their prime and causing death within 18 to 24 months. Now, scientists from The Cancer Institute at NYU Langone Medical Center have identified a key gene—eIF4G1—that is overexpressed in the majority of cases of IBC, allowing cells to form highly mobile clusters that are responsible for the rapid metastasis that makes IBC such an effective killer.
Source: NYU News Archive
April 2, 2008: Your Health: Inflammatory Breast Cancer Ginny Mason, Executive Director of the Inflammatory Breast Cancer Research Foundation, was interviewed by the Mobile, AL NBC affiliate, Channel 15, for inclusion in their “Medical Moment” on the 10 o’clock News. The first segment on inflammatory breast cancer aired March 31st. Ginny was surprised to learn that there would be a second segment on April 2nd. She was told there would be a second segment “because this is too important a topic to be covered in 2 min.”
Click here to view the March 31st segment.
Click here to view the April 2nd segment.
March 10, 2008: Separate Treatment Algorithm Created for Inflammatory Breast Cancer: Presented at NCCN — The first algorithm developed specifically for inflammatory breast cancer was unveiled here at the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) 13th Annual Conference on Clinical Practice Guidelines and Quality Cancer Care.
The treatment pathway was written in response to criticism that this aggressive form of cancer requires its own treatment guidelines.
“We realised (sic) that inflammatory breast cancer is a distinct clinical-pathological entity,” said Robert W. Carlson, MD, Professor of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California.
Click here to read the full report by Ed Susman on www.docguide.com.
February 23, 2008: Inflammatory Breast Cancer: Issues and Updates — Dr. Edith Perez, Serene M. and Frances C. Purling Professor of Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL presented an IBC workshop at the 8th Annual Conference of Young Women Affected by Breast Cancer in Jacksonville, FL. Dr. Perez has kindly provided her slides to this website. Click here to view the presentation slides. Click here to read the transcript of the Inflammatory Breast Cancer Workshop.
October 23, 2007: University of Michigan Inflammatory Breast Cancer Clinic — The University of Michigan Ann Arbor announced on October 23, 2007 The University of Michigan, U-M, clinic for Inflammatory Breast Cancer. ” ‘The U-M Inflammatory Breast Cancer Clinic will be a clearinghouse where we can provide tertiary care and advice,’ Merajver says. She currently consults with oncologists from around the world about patients with inflammatory breast cancer and expects to continue this practice. U-M already treats women with inflammatory breast cancer, but the new dedicated clinic will ensure coordinated care, as well as more research opportunities. The Cancer Center expects to see about 80 patients per year at this clinic. About a quarter of those patients will come only for consultations and will eventually be treated in their community; the remainder will receive treatment at U-M.” Click here to read the UMHS Press Release.
October 7, 2007: University of Arizona Inflammatory Breast Cancer Clinic — There is another IBC Clinic in the works. It was announced on October 7, 2007 that this IBC Clinic is to be at the University of Arizona Cancer Center. Dr. Julie Lang, a surgical oncologist specializing in breast cancer at the University of Arizona Cancer Center, is “organizing an IBC clinic and an IBC team within the Arizona Cancer Center and wants it up and running within a year.” Quoting Dr. Lang from this article Deadly Cancer Eludes Diagnosis: “…we need to do a major education initiative here to get the facts out about this very different breast cancer – one that develops in weeks to months, not months to years. It has to be treated very aggressively, very quickly. … For decades, experts have estimated that IBC amounts to less than 5 percent of all breast cancer. Today, that figure is approaching 8 percent, she said. If a grant from the Susan G. Komen Foundation comes through, Lang will launch an IBC educational campaign aimed at primary-care doctors – ‘those likely to see this first’ – and hospitals, clinics and medical offices throughout Southern Arizona. In the meantime, Lang is organizing an IBC clinic and an IBC team within the Arizona Cancer Center, and wants it up and running within a year. ‘If we can get these women diagnosed quickly, then treated urgently and aggressively at a specialty center with significant multidisciplinary experience, then those 30 years of no good news will be over,’ she said.” This article in the Arizona Daily Star provides an IBC patient’s diagnosis journey as well as a video can be accessed by clicking here.
October 23, 2006: 2006 BEST PRACTICES IN BREAST CANCER ADVOCACY AWARDS — The National Breast Cancer Coalition Fund (NBCCF) has chosen the Inflammatory Breast Cancer Research Foundation (IBC Research Foundation) as a recipient of the 2006 Best Practices in Breast Cancer Advocacy Awards. The IBC Research Foundation is being recognized for its strategic, high-impact work in breast cancer research, and can serve as a model for other organizations. A total of $25,000 was awarded to the IBC Research Foundation. Click here to read the press release.
October 20, 2006: Inflammatory Breast Cancer Clinic Opens, Program Dedicated to Treatment, Research of IBC — M.D. Anderson features an article in their December 2006 issue of CancerWise that begins “Imagine being diagnosed with a fast-growing, lethal cancer so rare and baffling that researchers have little information on how to treat it. That has been the case for women diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer (IBC), a disease in which only 40% of patients in the United States survive five years. Scientists hope to improve those statistics with the opening of M. D. Anderson’s Inflammatory Breast Cancer Clinic and Research Program, the world’s first clinic devoted solely to research, diagnosis and treatment of IBC.” Click here to read the article. The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center announced October 20, 2006 the first clinic in the world dedicated to the treatment and research of inflammatory breast cancer (IBC). Click here to read the press release. Read the remarks of Owen Johnson, President of the IBC Research Foundation, at the IBC Clinic opening by clicking here.
Third Quarter 2006: Sanford Barsky, M.D. has an eight-page article on IBC in the publication, Oncologistic Magazine, Third Quarter 2006 edition, pages 26-33. The article is titled Few Survivors, Fewer Baby Boomer Advocates. “Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is a form of human breast cancer that, unfortunately, has not benefited from the recent advances that have aided the Baby Boomer generation afflicted with the more common forms of breast cancer.” Dr. Barsky goes on to write, “Although primary IBC may be relatively infrequent, its importance cannot be overstated. It causes a disproportionate number of deaths from breast cancer and its defining signature, the lymphovascular embolus, its defining signature, the lymphovascular embolus, is expressed to varying degrees by a large number of common non-IBC breast cancers. Following neoadjuvant chemotherapy for the advanced primary breast cancer, the residual disease often exhibits florid LVI. When the common forms of non-IBC breast cancer recur or relapse, the recurrence is characterized by florid LVI. Virtually everyone who dies of metastatic breast cancer dies with the disease showing LVI. All of these manifestations might be aptly termed secondary IBC. If we include secondary IBC in our definition, then IBC becomes a very common type of human breast cancer and it is a cancer that is now affecting large numbers of Baby Boomers.” This Oncologist Magazine, 6.25 MB in size, can be accessed by clicking here.
2004: The Odette Cancer Centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, Canada “In 2004, OCC opened Canada’s first patient-centred, multidisciplinary clinic for the management of locally advanced breast cancer and inflammatory breast cancer. The clinic is redefining cancer research and treatment for women, typically young women affected by this disease by addressing their unique support issues.” Click here to read about the Odette Cancer Centre programs.
