TY - JOUR
T1 - Inflammatory breast cancer defined
T2 - proposed common diagnostic criteria to guide treatment and research
AU - Susan G. Komen-IBCRF IBC Collaborative in partnership with the Milburn Foundation
AU - Jagsi, R.
AU - Mason, G.
AU - Overmoyer, B. A.
AU - Woodward, W. A.
AU - Badve, S.
AU - Schneider, R. J.
AU - Lang, J. E.
AU - Alpaugh, M.
AU - Williams, K. P.
AU - Vaught, D.
AU - Smith, A.
AU - Smith, K.
AU - Miller, K. D.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to acknowledge Susan G. Komen, The Inflammatory Breast Cancer Research Foundation, and the Milburn Foundation for their partnership in this effort. The authors would like to thank all members of the Susan G. Komen IBC Focus Group for edits to the manuscript and their contributions to the development of the diagnostic scoring scale. Additional members of the focus group include Sylvia Adams (New York University), Bryon Davis (Milburn Foundation), Jeremy Force (Duke University), John Martens (Erasmus University Rotterdam), Elizabeth Mittendorf (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute), Beverly Parker (Susan G. Komen Advocates in Science), Mihaela Skobe (Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai), and Danny Welch (University of Kansas Cancer Center).
Funding Information:
The authors would like to acknowledge Susan G. Komen, The Inflammatory Breast Cancer Research Foundation, and the Milburn Foundation for their partnership in this effort. The authors would like to thank all members of the Susan G. Komen IBC Focus Group for edits to the manuscript and their contributions to the development of the diagnostic scoring scale. Additional members of the focus group include Sylvia Adams (New York University), Bryon Davis (Milburn Foundation), Jeremy Force (Duke University), John Martens (Erasmus University Rotterdam), Elizabeth Mittendorf (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute), Beverly Parker (Susan G. Komen Advocates in Science), Mihaela Skobe (Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai), and Danny Welch (University of Kansas Cancer Center).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).
PY - 2022/4
Y1 - 2022/4
N2 - Purpose: Inflammatory breast cancer is a deadly and aggressive type of breast cancer. A key challenge relates to the need for a more detailed, formal, objective definition of IBC, the lack of which compromises clinical care, hampers the conduct of clinical trials, and hinders the search for IBC-specific biomarkers and treatments because of the heterogeneity of patients considered to have IBC. Methods: Susan G. Komen, the Inflammatory Breast Cancer Research Foundation, and the Milburn Foundation convened patient advocates, clinicians, and researchers to review the state of IBC and to propose initiatives to advance the field. After literature review of the defining clinical, pathologic, and imaging characteristics of IBC, the experts developed a novel quantitative scoring system for diagnosis. Results: The experts identified through consensus several “defining characteristics” of IBC, including factors related to timing of onset and specific symptoms. These reflect common pathophysiologic changes, sometimes detectable on biopsy in the form of dermal lymphovascular tumor emboli and often reflected in imaging findings. Based on the importance and extent of these characteristics, the experts developed a scoring scale that yields a continuous score from 0 to 48 and proposed cut-points for categorization that can be tested in subsequent validation studies. Conclusion: To move beyond subjective ‘clinical diagnosis’ of IBC, we propose a quantitative scoring system to define IBC, based on clinical, pathologic, and imaging features. This system is intended to predict outcome and biology, guide treatment decisions and inclusion in clinical trials, and increase diagnostic accuracy to aid basic research; future validation studies are necessary to evaluate its performance.
AB - Purpose: Inflammatory breast cancer is a deadly and aggressive type of breast cancer. A key challenge relates to the need for a more detailed, formal, objective definition of IBC, the lack of which compromises clinical care, hampers the conduct of clinical trials, and hinders the search for IBC-specific biomarkers and treatments because of the heterogeneity of patients considered to have IBC. Methods: Susan G. Komen, the Inflammatory Breast Cancer Research Foundation, and the Milburn Foundation convened patient advocates, clinicians, and researchers to review the state of IBC and to propose initiatives to advance the field. After literature review of the defining clinical, pathologic, and imaging characteristics of IBC, the experts developed a novel quantitative scoring system for diagnosis. Results: The experts identified through consensus several “defining characteristics” of IBC, including factors related to timing of onset and specific symptoms. These reflect common pathophysiologic changes, sometimes detectable on biopsy in the form of dermal lymphovascular tumor emboli and often reflected in imaging findings. Based on the importance and extent of these characteristics, the experts developed a scoring scale that yields a continuous score from 0 to 48 and proposed cut-points for categorization that can be tested in subsequent validation studies. Conclusion: To move beyond subjective ‘clinical diagnosis’ of IBC, we propose a quantitative scoring system to define IBC, based on clinical, pathologic, and imaging features. This system is intended to predict outcome and biology, guide treatment decisions and inclusion in clinical trials, and increase diagnostic accuracy to aid basic research; future validation studies are necessary to evaluate its performance.
KW - Clinical diagnosis
KW - Diagnostic criteria
KW - Inflammatory breast cancer
KW - Molecular markers
KW - Pathology
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85122109598&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85122109598&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10549-021-06434-x
DO - 10.1007/s10549-021-06434-x
M3 - Review article
C2 - 34973083
AN - SCOPUS:85122109598
SN - 0167-6806
VL - 192
SP - 235
EP - 243
JO - Breast Cancer Research and Treatment
JF - Breast Cancer Research and Treatment
IS - 2
ER -