Inflammatory Breast Cancer

Treatment

Doctors at Mayo Clinic provide many treatment options to make your medical care as effective and comfortable as possible. Your treatment depends on many factors including the stage of your tumor, your age and overall health. You and your doctor discuss the treatment options that are most appropriate for you. Mayo Clinic doctors offer several treatments for inflammatory breast cancer including:

• Axillary lymph node dissection. Your doctor performs an underarm (axillary) lymph node dissection if your cancer has spread to the lymph nodes. After removing the lymph nodes, your doctor tests them to determine if cancer is present. Your doctor may recommend other treatments if the lymph nodes contain cancer.
• Chemotherapy. In most cases of inflammatory breast cancer, doctors at Mayo Clinic recommend chemotherapy to shrink the tumor before an operation. This may help you have a simpler and possibly more effective operation and better healing. Your doctor may also recommend more chemotherapy after surgery to kill cancer cells that may have spread outside the breast.
• Frozen section analysis. The frozen section lab at Mayo Clinic provides rapid and accurate analysis of tissue while you're still in the operating room. This analysis helps your doctor, within minutes of removing the tissue, determine if any cancer remains. Without frozen section analysis, determining whether all cancer has been removed may take days and require more surgery.
• Radiation therapy. Radiation therapy uses high-energy X-rays to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors. If your doctor recommends radiation therapy, it's typically given after surgery. Radiation therapy reduces the risk of recurrence. Your doctor considers your body shape and normal tissues to safely deliver radiation therapy.
• Surgical reconstruction. Surgery usually follows chemotherapy for inflammatory breast cancer. In most cases, mastectomy is the standard surgery. However, if chemotherapy destroys your cancer, you may not need a mastectomy.
• Breast reconstruction. Breast reconstruction after cancer surgery is possible in some cases. Mayo Clinic surgeons perform reconstruction with implants and reconstruction using your own tissue (autologous reconstruction). These surgeries include TRAM surgery, DIEP surgery, SIEA surgery, and reconstruction of the nipple and areola.
• Hormone therapy. Before starting hormone therapy, your doctor tests your cancer cells to see if they're sensitive to certain hormones. Hormone therapy involves taking drugs that prevent estrogen from reaching breast cells, which reduces the chance that your cancer will recur.
• Herceptin therapy. Just as your cancer cells are tested to see if they're sensitive to hormones, your cancer cells are routinely tested to see if they're sensitive to a medication known as trastuzumab (Herceptin). Trastuzumab is often given along with chemotherapy and is continued for up to one year after chemotherapy.
• Experimental therapy. Mayo Clinic doctors offer many experimental therapies. Your doctor will discuss the possibility of participation in a clinical trial if it's appropriate.
• Mayo Clinic Familial Cancer Program. Mayo Clinic offers the Familial Cancer Program, which helps to identify people at higher risk for breast cancer because of family history. A team of doctors determines your potential cancer risk and develops a cancer-screening plan for families at increased risks. Doctors offer consultations to people who've been diagnosed with cancer and family members who haven't had cancer.

Read more about breast reconstruction and hormone therapy at MayoClinic.com.