The symptoms associated with inflammatory breast cancer are usually the first cause of concern. However, while most breast infections will respond to antibiotics, inflammatory breast cancer will not. In fact, symptoms of inflammatory breast cancer do not usually get better or worse as infections do. If symptoms persist more than two or three weeks despite treatment, further testing and a breast biopsy should be performed to determine whether cancer is present. Inflammatory breast cancer is an aggressive cancer that can grow and spread quickly.
Chemotherapy is treatment with anti-cancer drugs.
Researchers are also investigating whether high-dose chemotherapy is effective for treating inflammatory breast cancer. Because high dose chemotherapy causes damage to bone marrow cells, a bone marrow transplant or blood stem cell transplantation may be necessary. After surgery, patients with inflammatory breast cancer are usually treated with additional chemotherapy followed by radiation therapy to the chest wall. Past statistics have shown the average survival rate of inflammatory breast cancer to be approximately 18 months. However, recent studies have shown that advancements in treatment may help to extend the survival time for women with inflammatory breast cancer.