“Inflammatory breast cancer is very aggressive and rare and a lot of times the diagnosis can be missed,” said Margaret Gatti-Mays, MD, MPH, a medical oncologist who specializes in breast cancer and is one of the leaders of the Stefanie Spielman Comprehensive Breast Center’s Inflammatory Breast Cancer Program. In this episode, she explains that this rare form of breast cancer “accounts for less than 2 percent of all breast cancers, adding that “one-third of all inflammatory breast cancers will be metastatic [when first diagnosed] while only 5 percent of the more typical types of breast cancer we see are metastatic [when first diagnosed].” One of the reasons inflammatory breast cancer is initially misdiagnosed is that the symptoms “are non-specific,” Gatti-Mays said. “The onset is rapid and includes redness in the breast, or it can be pink, red or purple, and appear over one-third of the breast, as well as a rapid swelling of the breast; it feels full and swollen and the skin of the breast looks like an orange peel, with dimpling.” These symptoms can be misdiagnosed as mastitis or duct ectasia, which are more common and non-cancerous. Mastitis and duct ectasia are initially treated with anti-biotics. “If the symptoms don’t improve, I encourage women to come to the Stefanie Spielman Comprehensive Breast Center,” Gatti-Mays said. “We have a diagnostic clinic and patients can self-refer and get imaging. Because of how aggressive inflammatory breast cancer is, there’s a sense of urgency to get a biopsy, make a diagnosis and evaluate if it has spread.” The team that comprises the Spielman’s Inflammatory Breast Cancer Program are experts in diagnosing and treating this type of cancer. “Breast cancer care has become more complicated and having a team at a comprehensive cancer center is important to identify patients who need to start treatment immediately.” Treatment options include surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy. Soon after she arrived at the Spielman, Gatti-Mays treated a pregnant woman with inflammatory breast cancer. “That drove me to want to learn more and figure out how to better treat these patients,” she said. “I realized a lot of my Spielman colleagues shared this interest” and this led to the formation of the Inflammatory Breast Cancer Program. “As a physician-scientist, I can say with absolute certainty that the patients I see in my clinic gives me the fuel we need to push forward and do better and better.”