Inflammatory breast cancer, or IBC, is a rare and aggressive breast cancer. Although survival rates for IBC may not be as high as they are for other breast cancers, modern treatments continue to improve survival.

About one-third of women with IBC have metastases, or metastatic breast cancer at the time of diagnosis. This means the cancer has spread 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 begins with neoadjuvant chemotherapy, which means chemotherapy is given before surgery. It helps shrink the tumor or tumors in the breast and lymph nodes so that surgery can better remove all of the cancer.

Surgery for IBC is almost always a mastectomy, along with an axillary lymph node dissection, which removes some lymph nodes in the underarm area.

Surgery is typically followed by radiation therapy. Additional treatments after surgery and radiation depend on what treatments were given before surgery and the tumor’s characteristics, such as hormone receptor status and HER2-status.

For more information, visit the Inflammatory Breast Cancer page on komen.org.