Symptoms of Inflammatory breast cancer are different from the routine kinds of breast cancers that we generally see. Most patients with present with a lump that they feel in their breasts or an abnormal mammogram. Rarely, they present with an abnormal breast ultrasound or an abnormal MRI scan. Inflammatory breast cancers are unique and are a challenge to both patients and most primary care physicians which many times leads to delay in the diagnosis and treatment of such patients.
The symptoms of inflammatory breast cancers typically mimic an infection of the involved breast, also called mastitis. It is easy to attribute the changes of redness, swelling, pain and bloody nipple discharge as being due to an infection. It is common knowledge that cancers of the breasts are painless, so when these painful symptoms are felt by the patient, they feel reassured that they are not dealing with breast cancer. Many primary care physicians usually go along with the diagnosis of mastitis and prescribe several trials of antibiotics. Weeks go by while the pain and swelling continue to worsen to a point when a surgical opinion is obtained. Continue reading