Breast Cancer (Inflammatory Carcinoma)
Question:
My sister was diagnosed this week with breast cancer, specifically inflammatory carcinoma. We have not been able to find information about this particular form of cancer. It WAS described in one book as being "very rare" and maybe that is why so little information is available. Can anyone tell us how to find sources of information on the internet on this subject? What about book titles we can order from our book store. We desparately want to know how this cancer acts, what it is going to do to my sister, what we can do to manage it, what hope do we have? Carolyn Robertson
Response:
My sister was diagnosed this week with breast cancer, specifically inflammatory carcinoma. We have not been able to find information about this particular form of cancer. It WAS described in one book as being "very rare" and maybe that is why so little information is available. Can anyone tell us how to find sources of information on the internet on this subject? What about book titles we can order from our book store. We desparately want to know how this cancer acts, what it is going to do to my sister, what we can do to manage it, what hope do we have?
There is a new IBC web page at http://www.bestiary.com/ibc/ . Please feel free to mail me privately as well. Menya — Menya Wolfe http://www.bestiary.com/wolf/
Response:
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – My sister was diagnosed this week with breast cancer, specifically inflammatory carcinoma. We have not been able to find information about this particular form of cancer. It WAS described in one book as being "very rare" and maybe that is why so little information is available. Can anyone tell us how to find sources of information on the internet on this subject? What about book titles we can order from our book store. We desparately want to know how this cancer acts, what it is going to do to my sister, what we can do to manage it, what hope do we have? Carolyn Robertson
Inflammatory breast cancer is a clinical diagnosis made when a malignant breast mass is accompanied by local erythema (looking like an infection). This unfortunately reflects growth of tumor into the dermal blood vessels and lymphatics, which in turn indicates an aggressive cancer. The primary treatment for inflammatory breast cancer is chemotherapy, but unfortunately it isn’t very good. In a young patient, I would consider some form of high dose chemotherapy with stem cell rescue. If you don’t have a hospital near you involved in that treatment, consider Duke, Johns Hopkins, Dana Farber, Allegheny Univ., Mayo, and similar centers. Chemotherapy should be given after biopsy, even before mastectomy if possible. I would NOT delay chemotherapy to allow for radiation. For more info, check http://www.oncoweb.com/ (European centers), oncolink.upenn.edu, or http://wwwicic.nci.nih.gov/. I wish your sister good luck and wish I had something a bit more hopeful to suggest. Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit <HTML
<BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITEMy sister was diagnosed this week with breast cancer, specifically <BRinflammatory carcinoma. We have not been able to find information about <BRthis particular form of cancer. It WAS described in one book as being <BR"very rare" and maybe that is why so little information is available. <BRCan anyone tell us how to find sources of information on the internet on <BRthis subject? What about book titles we can order from our book store. We <BRdesparately want to know how this cancer acts, what it is going to do to <BRmy sister, what we can do to manage it, what hope do we have? <PCarolyn Robertson Search, Read, Post to Usenet</BLOCKQUOTE Inflammatory breast cancer is a clinical diagnosis made when a malignant breast mass is accompanied by local erythema (looking like an infection). This unfortunately reflects growth of tumor into the dermal blood vessels and lymphatics, which in turn indicates an aggressive cancer. <BRThe primary treatment for inflammatory breast cancer is chemotherapy, but unfortunately it isn’t very good. In a young patient, I would consider some form of high dose chemotherapy with stem cell rescue. If you don’t have a hospital near you involved in that treatment, consider Duke, Johns Hopkins, Dana Farber, Allegheny Univ., Mayo, and similar centers. Chemotherapy should be given after biopsy, even before mastectomy if possible. I would NOT delay chemotherapy to allow for radiation. <PFor more info, check <A HREF="http://www.oncoweb.com/"http://www.oncoweb.com/</A (European centers), oncolink.upenn.edu, or <A HREF="http://wwwicic.nci.nih.gov/"http://wwwicic.nci.nih.gov/</A. I wish your sister good luck and wish I had something a bit more hopeful to suggest.</HTML
