Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) afflicts 4% of those with cancer and accounts for an estimated 10% of the 39,500 annual deaths resulting from breast cancer in the U.S., according to Naoto Ueno, executive director of M.D. Anderson's inflammatory breast cancer research.
The condition, which is named after the red, inflamed stature of the afflicted breast, is caused when microscopic tumor cells plug up the lymph vessels.
The median survival for women with IBC is less than three years, says Massimo Cristofanilli, chairman of medical oncology at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. The low survival rate is, in part, due to the difficulty of detecting the disease. One survivor, Gennine Chendy, speaking with USA Today, said that the disease spread quickly without displaying external symptoms:
"It was stage 4 inflammatory breast cancer, but I wasn't sick. You would think, that if you're walking around with a stage 4 cancer, you would be sick."
The disease is particularly prevalent in young women, African Americans and obese women.
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