Amy Vanderoef: It is the rarest form of breast cancer but very aggressive and often times misdiagnosed. Unlike other types of breast cancer, inflammatory breast cancer can be difficult to detect by an ultrasound or a mammogram and Dr. Simeon Jaggernauth of Cancer Treatment Centers of America, he’s here with breast cancer patient
Glenda Battle. How are you two?
Glenda Battle: Fine.
Dr. Simeon Jaggernauth: Great, thanks.
Amy Vanderoef: Good for you to be here right now. Dr. Jaggernauth explain exactly what this inflammatory breast cancer is and why is this so dangerous.
Dr. Simeon Jaggernauth: Well, inflammatory breast cancer is a rare form of breast cancer that most women don’t really know about. Less than 5% of cases are usually found in women who are diagnosed with the disease. What’s unusual about this is that there is usually not a lump; nothing, not even a mammogram will detect it at all. It usually is found when the woman sees an abnormal spot on the breast. It looks red, looks irritated, looks very unusual in appearance and we’re not really sure why this develops but we know that if it’s not addressed quickly it can lead to serious complications.
Amy Vanderoef: Are there any other symptoms besides maybe or maybe not seeing this redness or irritation?
Dr. Simeon Jaggernauth: Well, typically what would happen is that there would be a development of a, what’s called a peau d' orange a dimpling of the breast it looks like an orange peel. So, the orange peel appearance the nipple will go from a normal appearance…
Amy Vanderoef: OK.
Dr. Simeon Jaggernauth: to what’s called a retracted appearance.
Amy Vanderoef: OK.
Dr. Simeon Jaggernauth: This would then lead to the dimpling of the skin leading to redness, swelling. Sometimes women think it might be mastitis, they might think it’s an insect bite, they might think it’s something else and it’s typically it does not respond after treatment with antibiotics, steroids, or anything else and then what you need to have is a biopsy.
Amy Vanderoef: OK. I’m sure Glenda I want to address you because you
were diagnosed in 2001 and then came back in 2005 as an inflammatory in the same breast. What happened? What did you discover?
Glenda Battle: I just had a little red spot on my breast, the same breast and it looked like a bug bite and then it developed into a rash. Still, I’d never heard of inflammatory breast cancer so I wasn’t concerned or anything, but within a month’s time my breast had doubled in size and was red and had all characteristics that Dr. Jag just mentioned.
Amy Vanderoef: Wow.
Glenda Battle: And I went to my breast surgeon and she did a biopsy, and it came back positive.
Amy Vanderoef: And Dr. you’re shaking your head. This is something that you hear a lot.
Dr. Simeon Jaggernauth: Yes. Yes.
Amy Vanderoef: And that all of a sudden it becomes something that they notice but don’t address and then it becomes something that obvious.
Dr. Simeon Jaggernauth: Yes. If anything they need to address this quickly because sometimes women tend to think, “Well, you know it will get better with antibiotics, it will get better if I put some steroids on it, if I put some cream or just, you know, or just watch it over time.” This is one scenario where it has to be addressed very quickly because in those 5% of patients who ignore it, the it can be life threatening.
Amy Vanderoef: Ok. So we don’t ignore, we get it diagnosed, how is it treated?
Dr. Simeon Jaggernauth: OK. It usually requires combination treatment. If, that is it requires chemotherapy which are drugs which are injected through your blood stream, radiation which are energy beams directed to the area and surgery to eliminate that area from spreading to other parts of the body. After that you may be placed on certain medications such as tamoxifen, herceptin, and/or ticurb which then control the disease over a number of years depending on what stage it is.
Amy Vanderoef: Alright. Thank you so much for being here because awareness is our best source for prevention…
Dr. Simeon Jaggernauth: Yes.
Amy Vanderoef: so we make sure that we don’t end up in trouble. Thank you so much for being here and sharing your story too, Glenda. For more information call Cancer Treatment Centers of America 1-800-333-CTCA or log onto cancercenter.com