[Inflammatory breast cancer: 38 cases clinical report].
OBJECTIVE
Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is a special form of rapidly progressive breast cancer with poor prognosis. The purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical characters, treatment, and prognosis of inflammatory breast cancer.


METHODS
Thirty-eight patients with inflammatory breast cancer who were diagnosed and treated from March 20, 1970 to December 21, 2001 in our hospital were analyzed retrospectively.


RESULTS
All IBC patients presented clinically with an erythematous or swollen and tender breast, no fever. The mean age of 38 patients was 45 years old. Twenty-four patients were in stage III b and 14 in stage IV. Eighteen patients received local treatment (radiotherapy or surgery) firstly and 20 patients underwent chemotherapy firstly. Median survival was 17 months. The 1 year and the 5 year survival rates were 57.7% and 14.0%, respectively. The administration of chemotherapy first improved the outcome of IBC. Earlier stage showed more favorable prognosis.


CONCLUSIONS
Combination therapy with chemotherapy first was an effective treatment for IBC.
Huang
Jing
J
Department of Medical Oncology, Cancer Institute & Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100021, P. R. China. hjchey@hotmail.com
Zhang
Pin
P
Liu
Peng
P
Ou
Guang-fei
GF
Wang
Zi-ping
ZP
Xu
Bing-he
BH
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007249:Inflammation; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016019:Survival Analysis; D015996:Survival Rate; D016896:Treatment Outcome