2 years ago
Inflammatory Breast Cancer is a rare, aggressive form of cancer that accounts for only 1 to 4% of all breast cancers. It's consequences are usually grim.
But new approaches to its treatment made all the difference when Joanne Ruddy was diagnosed with IBC in 1998.
In May 1999, Joanne Ruddy celebrated her 55th birthday at Georgetown University's Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. Surrounded by her husband Joseph and most of their eleven children, Joanne blew out the candle that symbolized another important milestone---it had been one year since she was diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer.
?I was shocked because my mother died of melanoma so I was very regular in my mammograms and in my exams--I knew there was cancer in my family so I was very vigilant about that.?
Two weeks earlier, a regular check up had revealed nothing unusual. The redness on her breast, she was told, was a reaction to medical adhesive tape. A mammogram detected a large tumor.
"In inflammatory carcinoma of the breast the entire breast might be dense.?
Oncologist Fred Smith says that with inflammatory breast cancer early diagnosis doesn't exist---the symptoms are often mistaken for an infection. At that point, he says, the cancer has spread with the aggressiveness of a wildfire.
?It's already zinged thru the breast and the tissue so the name is very apt, very correct. The breast looks red, very inflamed. It's sometimes tender and then you have this little cobblestone- like orange peel appearance to the skin.?
Statistics reinforce the deadly nature of the disease---only three percent of patients survive beyond three years. Surgery is usually not an option. The best treatment aims to protect the whole body and is as aggressive as the cancer.
"Every two weeks I was getting chemotherapy and it was twice as much chemotherapy in a shorter amount of time.?
?After we've gotten the best results with chemotherapy we treat the breast, often with mastectomy and even after the mastectomy with radiation.?
More than five years after her initial diagnosis, Joanne Ruddy is back teaching high school full time in Prince Georges county. She says faith, family and a sense of humor were crucial to her survival. But both she and Joseph Ruddy agree, seeking a second opinion at a comprehensive cancer center is a must.
?There's no doubt in my mind she would not be with us today if we had not gone to a comprehensive cancer center.?
Written by Andrea Roane
