Inflammatory breast cancer: Epidemiological, diagnostic, therapeutic and evolutionary aspects. About 43 cases at the Joliot-Curie Institute in Dakar

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To clarify the epidemiological, diagnostic and therapeutic features and to improve the prognosis of inflammatory breast cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a retrospective study from January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2020 including patients with a diagnosis of inflammatory breast cancer. RESULTS: During the study, 1.730 cases of breast cancer were collected, of which 43 cases of inflammatory cancer (2.5%). The average age of the patients was 44.8 years. The average consultation time was 6.4 months. All patients had lymph node involvement. Non-specific infiltrating carcinoma was the histological type found in all cases. All patients received at least a first line of chemotherapy with a better clinical response to taxanes than to anthracyclines. Surgery was performed in 69.76% of cases. Forty percent of patients were alive at the end of the study. CONCLUSION: Inflammatory breast cancer is quite rare at the Joliot-Curie Institute. The diagnosis is late. Early diagnostic and therapeutic management would improve the therapeutic outcome of inflammatory breast cancer. KEYWORDS: Inflammatory breast cancer; Epidemiology; Prognosis.