Inflammatory Cancer of the Breast: Present Situation and Future Prospect.

Abstract

Inflammatory cancer of the breast is a disease entity that is characterized by diffuse edema and redness of the breast skin mimicking acute mastitis. This condition was first described by Lee and Tannenbaum in 1924 and reported in more detail by Taylor and Metzler in 1938. This disease is also characterized by aggressive biologic behavior and extremely poor prognosis. Many investigators reported that only few percent of patients with this disease survived 5 years after conventional mastectomy with or without radiotherapy. Treatment for this type of breast canccer has been a challenge to breast cancer investigators. Since the early 1980's, gradual improvement of treatment results has been made after introduction of preoperative and postoperative chemotherapy as integral parts of multidisciplinary treatment. I and coworkers first applied intra-arterial infusion chemotherapy for the treatment of inflammatory breast cancer as a preoperative procedure. The long term follow-up study provided promising data. At this symposium, 3 symposists showed their data and commented on biological properties and treatment policy for this disease. Mitsuyama reported that a 5-year survival of 34% was obtained in his patients receiving preoperative chemotherapy with anthracycline containing regimen. Retrospective analysis revealed that a favorable local response, especially complete response (CR), was a significant indicator of favorable outcome. In an attempt to achieve more