Inflammatory cancer of the breast. Study of 4 cases in prolonged remission
Sans-Sabrafen, J.; Besses Raebel, C.
Medicina Clinica 86(4): 155-157
1986
ISSN/ISBN: 0025-7753 PMID: 3702516 Document Number: 269323
Out of nine cases of inflammatory breast carcinoma seen during the 1976-1984 period, four pre-menopausal women who achieved prolonged remissions with a global oncological approach including initial cytostatic polychemotherapy, local adjuvant radiotherapy and surgical or radiotherapeutic castration are reported. All patients underwent mastectomy after apparent remission had been identified. Subsequently, a modified Cooper type cytostatic treatment plus tamoxifen was administered. After fourteen or more months of cytostatic treatment all patients received exclusively tamoxifen. Therefore, 44% of patients achieved apparently complete remissions, with a mean survival longer than 75 months. Three out of the four patients are still alive and in remision, 82, 97 and 91 months after the diagnosis. The drastic change in the therapeutic approach to the inflammatory breast carcinoma, that was considered a fatal disease in the short term, only fifteen years ago, is emphasized in the present article.