Establishing baseline skin-thickness MRIs for patients with rare but aggressive Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC) can help physicians assess the success of preoperative systemic therapy (PST), leading to a more successful mastectomy with a lower risk of local-regional recurrence (LRR) of the IBC, according to a study done by a team from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

‘Patients with IBC have skin thickening and enhancement on baseline breast MRI, with a statistically significant reduction in skin thickness following successful PST. Despite persistent skin changes on MRI, patients achieving a partial or complete parenchymal response to PST may proceed to mastectomy with low LRR rates,” wrote lead author Dr. Eren Yeh, M.D.

According to Yee, “Inflammatory breast cancer is uncommon, but it has a poor prognosis. It tends to manifest as skin thickening or redness and swelling in the breast. Also, since it isn’t able to be easily resected when it appears, patients initially undergo a chemotherapy course before mastectomy to reduce tumor burden and thus make surgery more successful and prevent recurrence.”

“The results are good news for women suffering from this rare and aggressive cancer, as well as for the physicians treating them,” reports Yee.

Sources:

Eren Yeh, Anna Rives, Faina Nakhlis, Camden Bay, Beth T. Harrison, Jennifer R. Bellon, Marie Claire Remolano, Heather Jacene, Catherine Giess, Beth Overmoyer. MRI Changes in Breast Skin Following Preoperative Therapy for Patients with Inflammatory Breast Cancer. Academic Radiology 2021 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acra.2021.08.003 Available online September 21, 2021. Accessed October 4, 2021 at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1076633221003561

Yee, Kate. Breast MRI gauges therapy success in women with inflammatory disease. AuntMinnie.com September 23, 2021. Accessed October 4, 2021, at https://www.auntminnie.com/index.aspx?sec=sup&sub=wom&pag=dis&ItemID=133561