Inflammatory Breast Cancer Awareness: Breast Cancer Doesn’t Always Start with a Lump

Instead I saw the first of the many worried medical faces I would see over the next few years. The doctor shocked me when he said he would have to biopsy for a type of breast cancer I'd never even heard of called inflammatory breast cancer. This couldn't be happening to me. I was well informed about women's health issues. I'd done my monthly self-checks. I'd never read anywhere that my symptoms could be cancer.

Later, I read the self-check directions again, and realized that I'd always assumed that line about dimpling refers to a change in shape caused by a lump. It doesn't. It refers to a symptom called peau d'orange (French for orange peel), which is what my red, dimpled patch looked like.

The doctor's voice washed over me while he explained about the biopsy. I didn't absorb much of what he said. Two words did pierce my fog: lymphatic system. When he finished talking, I said, "What was the name of the kind of cancer? What were you saying about the lymphatic system?"

So very kindly, he started back over again. Yes, inflammatory breast cancer involves the lymphatic system, which is why it is the most dangerous form of breast cancer. It starts in the lymph vessels of the skin of the breast and often doesn't present with a lump. Because it's in the lymph vessels, which carry fluid through out our bodies, it often spreads with deadly results.

The surgeon said he didn't think I had inflammatory breast cancer. Usually people with it have more swelling and discoloration over the entire breast. But he thought it important to not take any chances. Too often he said doctors try several rounds of antibiotics before they realize they are not dealing with an infection, and by that time, it's too late.

Thank goodness, I had a knowledgeable doctor who didn't take any chances with my symptoms. It turned out I did have inflammatory breast cancer, which is often just called IBC. Eight months after I finished chemo, surgery, and radiation, I started the waiting game to see if all those treatments had really chased the cancer from my body. I got used to worried doctors' faces. I also started my mission to spread the word that not all breast cancer starts with a lump.

Five years after my diagnosis, my doctors said they thought that my cancer would have shown its ugly face again if it were still in my body. They also scheduled another appointment for next year. In the IBC world, doctors don't usually use the word "cured." But I'm almost ten years out now; I'm feeling good; I'm telling people, "Not all breast cancer starts with a lump."