“Why and What” for the optimal management of inflammatory breast cancer
Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is one of the most aggressive breast cancer subtypes. IBC has multiple clinical management challenges from diagnosis to treatment. In December 2020, as part of the 4th International Inflammatory Breast Cancer Conference, we hosted an online discussion forum for IBC management. The session was chaired by Dr. Wendy Woodward, Dr. Huong T. Le-Petross, and Dr. Naoto T. Ueno. Here, the special series presents a summary of the presentations.
In 2018, we published a consensus of contemporary treatment approaches for IBC (1). National and international experts created this consensus statement in IBC from high-volume centers treating IBC, recently convened at the 10th Anniversary Conference of the Morgan Welch Inflammatory Breast Cancer Research Program at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas.
However, despite the consensus (1) and National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines (2), there remains a challenge for many practitioners to optimize the best approach for diagnosis and treatment. This special series includes expert editorial input from a multidisciplinary specialist at MD Anderson. The special series covers the best way to make a clinical diagnosis of IBC and discusses the ideal radiographic approaches for diagnosis and treatment planning. The special series also covers trimodal treatment strategies, which are essential for the best outcome. Trimodal treatment comprises the best systemic treatment, the most appropriate surgical approach, and the optimal radiation therapy.
These six papers provide the latest comprehensive information about diagnosing IBC and providing the best standard of care accurately. IBC is often misdiagnosed, and more than one-third of patients do not receive the trimodal treatment approach. Missing any one of the three treatment modalities reduces overall survival compared with receiving all three (3); hence dissemination of best practices is crucial to improving outcomes worldwide in this often-misunderstood subtype of breast cancer.
We hope that these articles will provide practical tips for your day-to-day encounters with IBC. MD Anderson also offers the best standard of care to the public as a treatment algorithm. These guidelines are updated every year (4).
Acknowledgments
Funding: Morgan Welch Inflammatory Breast Cancer Research Program, and State of Texas Rare and Aggressive Breast Cancer Research Program Grant.
Footnote
Provenance and Peer Review: This article was commissioned by the editorial office, Chinese Clinical Oncology for the series “Inflammatory Breast Cancer”. The article did not undergo external peer review.
Conflicts of Interest: Both authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at https://dx.doi.org/10.21037/cco-21-158). The series “Inflammatory Breast Cancer” was commissioned by the editorial office without any funding or sponsorship. NTU and AA served as the unpaid Guest Editors of the series.. The authors have no other conflicts of interest to declare.
Ethical Statement: The authors are accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
Open Access Statement: This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits the non-commercial replication and distribution of the article with the strict proviso that no changes or edits are made and the original work is properly cited (including links to both the formal publication through the relevant DOI and the license). See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
References
- Ueno NT, Espinosa Fernandez JR, Cristofanilli M, et al. International Consensus on the Clinical Management of Inflammatory Breast Cancer from the Morgan Welch Inflammatory Breast Cancer Research Program 10th Anniversary Conference. J Cancer 2018;9:1437-47. [Crossref] [PubMed]
- National Comprehensive Cancer Network clinical practice guidelines in oncology: breast cancer version 5.2020 [Internet]. 2020 [cited 8 April 2021]. Available online: https://www.nccn.org/guidelines/guidelines-detail?category=1&id=1419
- Rueth NM, Lin HY, Bedrosian I, et al. Underuse of trimodality treatment affects survival for patients with inflammatory breast cancer: an analysis of treatment and survival trends from the National Cancer Database. J Clin Oncol 2014;32:2018-24. [Crossref] [PubMed]
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MD Anderson Inflammatory Breast Cancer Treatment Algorithm
