About IBC
What is this disease that we’ve been diagnosed with?
It is rare. Only 1-5% of all breast cancers are I.B.C. but this number is increasing. It is aggressive. The cancer cells block the lymph vessels in the skin of the breasts; usually growing in sheets not lumps. That’s why you might have had a swollen, red, warm aching breast. That’s why the name Inflammatory.
Why is the diagnosis so difficult?
It is rare and most doctors have never seen it.
It doesn’t necessarily present with the usual lump. Only 50% of us have an actual lump.
The symptoms mimic an infection or hormone change.
A mammogram doesn’t detect it unless you have a lump.
Even biopsies of the skin can come back negative and therefore the diagnosis must be made by history and physical examination. In other words clinically rather than pathologically.
