Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is an aggressive breast cancer.

About one-third of women with IBC have metastases (metastatic breast cancer) when they are diagnosed. This means the cancer has spread beyond the breast and nearby lymph nodes to other parts of the body such as the bones, lungs, liver or brain.

IBC is treated with a combination of chemotherapy, surgery and radiation therapy. Treatment may also include hormone therapy, HER2-targeted therapy, CDK4/6 inhibitor therapy, immunotherapy and/or PARP inhibitor therapy.

Treatment for IBC usually begins with neoadjuvant (or pre-surgery) chemotherapy. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy helps shrink the tumor(s) in the breast and lymph nodes so that surgery can better remove all of the cancer. Surgery for IBC is almost always a mastectomy with an axillary dissection. The axillary dissection removes some lymph nodes in the underarm area called axillary lymph nodes.