The medical treatment of inflammatory breast cancer

Abstract

The multidisciplinary management of inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) includes neoadjuvant systemic chemotherapy, surgery, radiotherapy, and, in hormone receptor-positive disease, hormonal therapy. The use of induction chemotherapy with anthracyclines and taxanes somewhat improved the prognosis and local control of patients with IBC compared to local modalities alone. Improved understanding of the biological features of the disease has allowed for the development of targeted therapies (eg, trastuzumab and lapatinib) that are changing the outcome of this aggressive disease.