Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) only makes up about one to four percent of all breast cancers diagnosed. It has been known to be the most aggressive and deadly breast cancer diagnosis to receive. A clinical trial, reported in the journal Cancer, tells of researchers from France who focused their study on women with IBC who were treated with a high dose chemotherapy regimen.

There are very few studies focusing on IBC that have a ten year follow up. Large clinical trials and long term results for this disease are unusual. The trial evaluated 120 women with IBC who were treated with induction therapy followed by surgery. The chemotherapy treatment regimen consisted of fluorouracil (5-FU), Ellence (epirubicin) and cytoxan (cyclophosphamide), with or without Granocyte (lenograstim).

At ten years follow up, cancer free survival was nearly 36 percent and overall survival was almost 42 percent. These numbers may still seem too low for my liking but they are encouraging because they show that improvements in treating this disease are working and more women are surviving. The prognosis is not as grim as it once was for inflammatory breast cancer. This is good news!