Patients with inflammatory breast cancer at greater risk of metastasis to brain

"The relatively high incidence of brain metastases seen in the study population highlights the need for future research on the potential role for surveillance brain imaging for high-risk patients. There is an open, phase II, single-arm study at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute examining this question," said Dr. Warren. "It also emphasizes the need to obtain brain imaging in patients with inflammatory breast cancer presenting with neurologic symptoms given the high incidence of brain metastases in this population."

Most patients in this study who were diagnosed with brain metastases had neurologic symptoms, but because some patients may have undetected, asymptomatic brain metastases, the true incidence in patients with inflammatory breast cancer is likely even higher than what Dr. Warren and her colleagues observed.

An accompanying editorial notes that when considering whether to implement routine brain imaging tests in patients with inflammatory breast cancer, it will be important to determine whether earlier detection of brain metastases leads to improvements in both survival and quality of life.

Reference: 

Warren, L.E., Niman, S.M., Remolano, M.C., Landry, J.M., Nakhlis, F., Bellon, J.R., Aizer, A.A., Lin, N.U., Tolaney, S.M., Regan, M.M., Overmoyer, B.A. and Lynce, F. (2022), Incidence, characteristics, and management of central nervous system metastases in patients with inflammatory breast cancer. Cancer. https://doi.org/10.1002/cncr.34441