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The Effect of Systemic Chemotherapy on Minimal Residual Disease in the Blood and Bone Marrow of Patients with Inflammatory Breast Cancer

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Inflammatory Breast Cancer: An Update

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Abstract

Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is a particularly aggressive subtype of breast cancer that affects approximately 2.5% of patients with breast cancer in the industrialized countries, with a higher incidence reported in some other regions of the world [1–3]. Circulating tumour cells (CTCs) and disseminated tumor cells (DTCs) have become increasingly accepted as independent prognostic factors both in patients with primary and with metastatic breast cancer [8–12]. Several research groups have reported on the enumeration of CTCs and DTCs in patients with IBC [22-23, 27-29]. Although particularly data in metastatic IBC are limited, the probability of detecting CTCs and DTCs in untreated IBC seems higher than what has been reported in any other subgroup of patients with breast cancer. These observations are in line with the purported prognostic significance of CTCs and DTCs in breast cancer and the well-known aggressive clinical course of IBC. Furthermore, they provide a reasonable explanation for the necessity of chemotherapy in the management of these patients and lend support to the hypothesis that improvement in IBC can only arise from superior systemic agents.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a grant from the “Stichting tegen Kanker-Foundation contre le Cancer” entitled “Evaluation of the importance of stem/progenitor cells for the biology of inflammatory breast cancer and breast cancer metastasis”. We sincerely thank all patients who gave blood and bone marrow samples for research intentions. We acknowledge all staff members of the Clinical Trials Organisation and Translational Cancer Research Unit from GZA Hospitals Sint-Augustinus, Antwerp, Belgium for their assistance. Dieter Peeters is research assistant of the Fund for Scientific Research Flanders and the University of Antwerp.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Translational Cancer Research Unit, Oncology Center, General Hospital Sint-Augustinus, Antwerp, Belgium

    Luc Y. Dirix, Dieter Peeters, Steven Van Laere & Peter B. Vermeulen

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  1. Luc Y. Dirix
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  2. Dieter Peeters
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  3. Steven Van Laere
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  4. Peter B. Vermeulen
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Correspondence to Luc Y. Dirix .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. MD Anderson Cancer Center, Dept. Breast Medical Oncology, University of Texas, Holcombe Blvd. 1515, Houston, 77030-4095, Texas, USA

    Naoto T. Ueno

  2. Fox Chase Cancer Center, Cottman Avenue; Room C315 333, Philadelphia, 19111, Pennsylvania, USA

    Massimo Cristofanilli

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Dirix, L.Y., Peeters, D., Van Laere, S., Vermeulen, P.B. (2012). The Effect of Systemic Chemotherapy on Minimal Residual Disease in the Blood and Bone Marrow of Patients with Inflammatory Breast Cancer. In: Ueno, N., Cristofanilli, M. (eds) Inflammatory Breast Cancer: An Update. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-3907-9_21

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