Stages of inflammatory breast cancer
All inflammatory breast cancers start as stage III (T4dNXM0) since they involve the skin. If the cancer has spread outside the breast to distant areas, it is stage IV.
Survival rates for inflammatory breast cancer
Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is considered aggressive cancer because it grows quickly, is more likely to have spread at the time it is found, and is more likely to come back after treatment than other types of breast cancer. The outlook is not as good as it is for other types of breast cancer.
Survival rates can give you an idea of what percentage of people with the same type and stage of cancer are still alive a certain amount of time (usually 5 years) after they were diagnosed. They cannot tell you how long you will live, but they may help give you a better understanding of how likely it is that your treatment will be successful.
What is a 5-year relative survival rate?
A relative survival rate compares women with the same type and stage of breast cancer to women in the overall population. For example, if the 5-year relative survival rate for a specific stage of breast cancer is 70%, it means that women who have that cancer are, on average, about 70% as likely as women who do not have that cancer to live for at least 5 years after being diagnosed.
Where do these numbers come from?
The American Cancer Society relies on information from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database, maintained by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), to provide survival statistics for several types of cancer.
The SEER database tracks 5-year relative survival rates for breast cancer in the United States, based on how far the cancer has spread. The SEER database, however, does not group cancers by AJCC TNM stages (stage 1, stage 2, stage 3, etc.). Instead, it groups cancers into localized, regional, and distant stages:
Localized: There is no sign that the cancer has spread outside of the breast.
Regional: The cancer has spread outside the breast to nearby structures or lymph nodes.
Distant: The cancer has spread to distant parts of the body such as the lungs, liver, or bones.
Understanding the numbers
Women now being diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer may have a better outlook than these numbers show. Treatments improve over time, and these numbers are based on women who were diagnosed and treated at least four to five years earlier.
These numbers apply only to the stage of the cancer when it is first diagnosed. They do not apply later if the cancer grows, spreads, or comes back after treatment.
These numbers do not take everything into account. Survival rates are grouped based on how far the cancer has spread, but your age, overall health, how well the cancer responds to treatment, tumor grade, and other factors can also affect your outlook.
Treating inflammatory breast cancer
Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) that has not spread outside the breast is stage III. In most cases, treatment is chemotherapy first to try to shrink the tumor, followed by surgery to remove the cancer. Radiation and often other treatments, like more chemotherapy or targeted drug therapy, are given after surgery. Because IBC is so aggressive, breast-conserving surgery (lumpectomy) and sentinel lymph node biopsy are typically not part of the treatment.
IBC that has spread to other parts of the body (stage IV) may be treated with chemotherapy, hormone therapy, and/or targeted drugs.
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