Clinical symptoms of inflammatory breast cancer

Inflammatory breast cancer is a rare type of breast cancer, also known as acute breast cancer, named because of its rapid growth and clinical manifestations similar to mastitis. Foreign literature reports that the incidence of inflammatory breast cancer accounts for 1% to 6% of all breast cancers, while the domestic statistics are about 0.9%. This type of breast cancer is more common in middle-aged women aged 48 to 55.

The main clinical symptoms of inflammatory breast cancer may include breast lumps, breast skin changes, and enlarged lymph nodes.

Breast lumps: The lumps in patients with inflammatory breast cancer can occupy most of the breast, often showing diffuse infiltration, often with unclear boundaries and a tough texture. Some patients cannot feel an obvious lump, but the breast becomes tough as a whole.

Breast skin changes: Breast skin that has undergone canceration may show changes such as congestion, swelling, increased skin temperature, and erysipelas-like changes; it may also have an orange peel-like appearance and ulcers. Generally, the affected skin may account for more than 1/3 of the entire breast skin.

Swollen axillary lymph nodes: More than half of patients with inflammatory breast cancer may have symptoms of axillary lymph node metastasis when they seek medical treatment, but the tenderness is not obvious.

Systemic changes: Inflammatory breast cancer looks similar to mastitis, but patients generally do not experience symptoms of infection and poisoning such as fever, elevated body temperature, and fatigue.

Laboratory examination: In patients with inflammatory breast cancer, blood routine examination showed that white blood cell count and neutrophil count were mostly within the normal range.