Inflammatory breast cancer or mastitis?
The symptoms of inflammatory breast cancer and mastitis are similar. Therefore, they can be confused. For this reason, in this article, we'll explain what distinguishes these two pathologies and how to address each one.
What is inflammatory breast cancer and what are its symptoms?
Despite that el breast cancer It is one of the most common among women, when we talk about inflammatory cancer we are faced with an uncommon typology (2-6% of all cases), atypical and with clearly differentiated symptoms.
These symptoms manifest as a consequence of blockage that tumor cells cause to the lymphatic vessels in the skin, causing:
- Inconvenience mild, increasing with palpation.
- Changes in breast temperature and appearance, which will possibly enlarge and thicken its size.
- Redness of the skin, including the appearance of bruises or purple spots.
- Payment Solution brands on the skin that could be confused with the so-called orange peel skin.
- El nipple could also be affected and, in some cases, even reach to sink or flatten.
- The ganglia Lymphatic vessels located in the armpit and above or below the collarbone may become swollen, enlarged, and hard.
Some of these symptoms can lead to inflammatory breast cancer being initially confused with mastitis, i.e., a breast infection.
What is mastitis?
Mastitis is the inflammation of the breast and is usually caused, generally but not always, for an infection in one of the breasts. This usually develops as a result of breastfeeding when a milk duct is blocked and doesn't drain properly, but also due to a cut or opening in the skin.
The infection causes the breast to swell, become inflamed, red, change its temperature, and cause pain or discomfort. In addition, It may present with fever or headache, even produce flu-like symptoms, with general malaise.
The treatment indicated for mastitis generally consists of the prescription of antibiotics and the emptying of milk from the breast. Only in cases where an abscess forms due to the accumulation of pus will surgery be necessary to drain the pus.
What happens when mastitis treatment is not effective?
If after a period of between 1 week to 10 days of taking antibiotics the symptoms have not completely disappeared, it is recommended go to the doctor as soon as possible to rule out inflammatory cancer disease.
The big problem with this pathology is that It usually evolves and spreads very quickly and does not develop into a lump. easily detectable through palpation of the breast or a mammogram, so its diagnosis and treatment are more complex.
The key is, therefore, in its rapid detection and, to do so, it is essential to go to the specialist as soon as possible, knowing that Not all of the symptoms described above have to occur simultaneously. for inflammatory breast cancer, also known as invasive ductal carcinoma, breast carcinoma with dermal lymphatic invasion, or inflammatory breast carcinoma.
Diagnosis of inflammatory breast cancer
If antibiotics are not effective, after the physical examination, a mammography to check for thickening of the skin or lymph nodes – adenopathy or lymphadenopathy - ultrasound of the breast to evaluate the area and better examine the lymph nodes and also as a guide for the biopsy, which will confirm the presence of cancer cells. Specialists may require further imaging tests and biopsies to make an accurate diagnosis and fine-tune treatment.
Treatment of inflammatory breast cancer
Due to the specificities of inflammatory breast cancer, it is always considered advanced, either in stage III or even in stage IV when it spreads outside the breast and armpit and invades neighboring or distant organs, that is, when there are metastases.
Your treatment should be approached from different disciplines and will normally include:
- Neoadjuvant chemotherapy, that is, prior to surgery, to remove or reduce the size of the tumor before surgery. The duration of chemotherapy will depend on how widespread the disease is. The targeted chemotherapy for HER2-positive cancers, that is, those in which a protein is detected that promotes the growth of cancer cells, increasing their aggressiveness.
- La surgery will usually consist of carrying out a complete mastectomy and action on the lymph nodes It will depend on the evaluation that the surgeon performs during the intervention itself through the location and intraoperative biopsy of the sentinel node.
- After surgery it will be necessary to continue with chemotherapy and, in many cases, it will also be necessary to treat with Radiotherapy, hormone therapy e Immunotherapy to prevent tumor recurrences.
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