Inflammatory breast cancer: new hopes and many hurdles.

T he field of inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) research is rife with enigmas and grim statistics. It is more aggressive and deadly than other breast cancers ( see Stat Bite), and the mechanisms driving its rapid progression and metastasis remain unclear. Also perplexing is why the disease disproportionately strikes African American women and women of North African or Middle Eastern descent. Even its name needs deciphering; the typical redness and swelling of the breast seen in IBC that superficially resemble inflammation are actually due to lymph ducts that have been clogged with tumor cells. But recent fi ndings have begun to unlock IBC’s mysteries. The search for molecular markers is revealing the genes at work in this disease, and research is turning up clues to how metastasis may unfold. With new cell lines and animal models in the works, and promising fi ndings in several recent studies, those in the fi eld are hopeful for future insights and therapies. “We are entering a very exciting time in infl ammatory breast cancer and in aggressive cancers in general where we are uncovering brand new targets,” said Sofi a Merajver, M.D., Ph.D. , codirector of the breast cancer research program at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. “They seem to be hugely informative about the behavior of these cells.”