Mammography, MRI or ultrasound often show suspicious signs; however in a significant proportion of cases they would miss a diagnosis.Clinical presentation is typical only in 50-75% of cases; and many other conditions such as mastitis or even heart insufficiency can mimic the typical symptoms of Inflammatory Breast Cancer.Response to antibiotic treatment or steroids does not rule out presence of IBC. Therefore, a biopsy should always be pursued.
Andrea Molckovsky, MD et al, Approach to inflammatory breast cancer
Canadian Family PhysicianJanuary 2009 vol. 55 no. 1
Dawood S, Merajver SD, Viens P, Vermeulen PB, Swain SM, Buchholz TA, Dirix LY, Levine PH, Lucci A, Krishnamurthy S, Robertson FM, Woodward WA, Yang WT, Ueno NT, Cristofanilli M.
International expert panel on inflammatory breast cancer: consensus statement for standardized diagnosis and treatment.Ann Oncol. 2011 Mar;22(3):515-23.
NCCN.org, breast/MRI, BINV-B
My wish is that ALL doctors knew a biopsy was called for in the event of IBC signs and symptoms. Way too many women are having a delayed diagnosis or misdiagnosis because their doctors keep insisting on treating them for mastitis (even me at age 65). If a woman is not pregnant, not breastfeeding and not running a temperature, she does not have an infection (mastitis) and antibiotics will not help. There's a great quote in our support group: "If in doubt, rule it out". That refers to ruling out IBC.
Posted by: Claudia Fauver | September 26, 2011 at 12:59 PM