health and wellness
NCCN Releases New Resource to Help Patients Understand Inflammatory Breast Cancer
The NCCN has published a new patient resource to explain the rare and aggressive form of breast cancer, inflammatory breast cancer (IBC). The NCCN Guidelines for Patients: Inflammatory Breast Cancer aims to empower patients with information about IBC’s treatment approaches and differences from other types of breast cancer.
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) has released a new resource for patients to help them understand inflammatory breast cancer (IBC), a rare and aggressive form of breast cancer. The NCCN Guidelines for Patients: Inflammatory Breast Cancer explains how IBC is different from more common forms of breast cancer and its treatment approaches. The resource is available for free at NCCN.org/patientguidelines or through the NCCN Patient Guides for Cancer App, thanks to funding from the NCCN Foundation. The resource is expected to empower patients to advocate for themselves when making tough decisions, as well as provide crucial information for patients to understand treatment and learn about survival rates that have improved in recent years.
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IBC is estimated to account for 1-6% of all breast cancer cases in the United States and usually diagnosed at a younger age. While the tools used for IBC are similar to those used for other types of breast cancer, the sequence and tempo are different. Treatment typically includes systemic therapy to shrink the tumor, followed by surgery to remove the breast and lymph nodes, and then radiation therapy. Many patients have advanced disease by the time of their diagnosis, and it can advance to the metastatic stage more quickly. It is important to take note of unusual skin changes to the breast, including redness, swollen nipple area, or warmth to the touch, as these could be harmless or signs of IBC.
The NCCN Guidelines for Patients: Inflammatory Breast Cancer is the latest addition to NCCN’s library of patient resources for breast cancer. The resource aims to provide expert cancer treatment information to inform and empower patients and caregivers, through support from the NCCN Foundation. The NCCN’s patient resources for breast cancer were recently named the 2022 Excellence in Cancer Patient Education award winner from the Cancer Patient Education Network (CPEN). Patients can also find other patient guidelines, language translations, webinars, and short videos containing expert-vetted information about breast cancer at NCCN.org/breast-cancer-resources.
