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Inflammatory breast cancer is a fast-moving cancer that doesn't usually form a lump; instead, the skin on one breast changes rapidly, explains Tina Hieken, M.D., a surgical oncologist at Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Inflammatory breast cancer often comes with symptoms that mimic inflammation of the breast, such as a change in skin color to a pink, red, purple or bruised appearance, unusual warmth in the affected breast and orange peel–like skin, a symptom known as peau d'orange.
As a result, inflammatory breast cancers may be misdiagnosed as cellulitis, mastitis, Paget's disease of the breast or other more benign conditions.
Inflammatory breast cancer accounts for roughly 1% to 5% of breast cancer diagnoses and 10% of breast cancer deaths, statistics show.
"When there are changes in the skin of the breast, particularly in women who aren't nursing and do not have breastfeeding-associated redness, that can be a warning sign of cancer and should be evaluated by a medical professional," Hieken says.
"In inflammatory breast cancer, symptoms can develop within a few months," she notes. "That's different from someone noting a lump in the breast over a period of time, and then secondarily, skin changes in the breast over a year or longer."
In inflammatory breast cancer, abnormal cells go through the lymphatic channels in skin and soft tissue, accounting for the skin changes in the breast, Hieken explains.
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