Introduction

Abstract

In 1970, in our Oncology Hospital in Mexico City, the majority of patients diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer were dead after 12 months regardless of the treatment received; the treatment was local therapies with surgery and radiotherapy. We initiated, and probably and to our knowledge in the world, a new and different management of inflammatory breast cancer. The sequential treatment with primary chemotherapy, followed by surgery and radiotherapy, has improved disease-free and overall survival rates in patients treated with combined modality regimens. There are no data that consider an optimal chemotherapeutic regimen. Anthracycline-based regimen followed by local therapy reported 5- and 10-year survival rates of 40 and 33 %, respectively; the incorporation of taxanes has also shown to be associated with higher pCR and better survival. HER2-positive disease is associated with higher pCR rates; to anthracycline-based chemotherapy, the addition of trastuzumab significantly improved pathological complete responses and free survival. Therapies that target vascular–lymphatic processes have shown potential in the treatment of IBC, as represented by bevacizumab. Currently, there are no data to support the use of additional adjuvant chemotherapies in patients with residual disease. The epidemiology of inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) research has been interfered by the small number of publications reported.