Inflammatory breast cancer of triple-negative subtype during lactation: a case report and review of the literature

Here we describe a breast cancer case from a 36-year-old female 4 months after delivery. During lactation, she had a painful large lump in the left breast, accompanied by erythema and edema of the 1/3 skin of the breast. Surgical biopsy confirmed that it was a case of invasive breast cancer without special type, grade 3, triple-negative/ basal-like subtype (ER-, PR-, HER2-, CK5&6+, EGFR+) and no dermal lymphatic involvement was observed. Although inflammatory breast cancer was diagnosed, the clinical evidence of metastasis was not found. After neoadjuvant chemotherapy, the patient underwent mastectomy with dissection of the axillary lymph nodes. The tumor did not invade her chest wall and skin. The tumor showed mild response to chemotherapy. No metastasis was identified in the axillary lymph nodes. The patient developed lung metastasis 8 months after mastectomy.