Inflammatory breast cancer or IBC, is the type of cancer which has no lump or mass that can be felt. It is a very rare and dangerous type of breast cancer accounting for 1 to 4 percent of all breast cancers. . You can’t detect it by self breast examination and mammogram. In many cases, the patient and even the doctor will mistake it for a simple infection and she'll be put on antibiotics. In inflammatory breast cancer cases, there is infiltration of the skin and lymph vessels of the breast by cancer cells. The symptoms of inflammatory breast cancer are a swollen, red and warm breast, which is brought on by the lymph vessels becoming blocked by the breast cancer cells.
The breast has a typical appearance of an individual with cellulite. Other symptoms of inflammatory breast cancer include, on the affected side, enlarged lymph nodes present under the arm or it may be above the collarbone.
The incidence of inflammatory breast cancer is quite uneven. This type of cancer tends to considerably affect younger women than those with other breast cancers and African Americans with this type of cancer tend to be younger than Caucasians.