Improving treatment of inflammatory breast cancer

Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is rare and accounts for only 1% to 5% of all breast cancers, but it is considered an aggressive cancer because it grows quickly and is more likely to come back after treatment than other types of breast cancer. It causes symptoms of breast inflammation like swelling and redness, which is caused by cancer cells blocking lymph vessels in the skin causing the breast to look "inflamed." Gayathri R. Devi, PhD, is a two-time American Cancer Society grantee who recently received a Mission Boost Grant to “boost” her inflammatory breast cancer research and move it closer to patients. Dr. Devi joined the podcast to talk about risk factors for IBC, how it’s different from other breast cancer types, and recent advances in her lab with promising clinical implications. Dr. Devi is Program Director for the Duke Consortium for Inflammatory Breast Cancer, Associate Professor of Surgery and Pathology at Duke School of Medicine, and the Director of the Duke North Carolina Central University bridge office as part of the Duke School of Medicine Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute. 3:18 – The symptoms and signs of inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) 6:34 – How inflammatory breast cancer differs from other, more common breast cancers 9:36 – Risk factors for inflammatory breast cancer 14:22 –Instead of a single tumor mass, IBC patients have small groups of tumor cells called emboli found in the breast, skin and lymph nodes around the breast tissue. What are emboli? How do they form? 16:00 – Why do emboli form in this way? 18:51 – What makes these emboli resistant to treatment and able to spread? 21:43 – On her ACS-funded research, which focuses on the environment in which the IBC emboli form, in the breast. Why is the breast environment so important? 28:35 – Adaptive stress response 31:15 – “I’ll give you an example here and talk a little about our research findings that are clinically relevant.” 38:25 – How do we target inflammatory breast cancer therapeutically? 40:47 – The 3M approach: Models, Mechanisms, and Measures 45:30 – If she could wave a magic anti-IBC wand, where would we be in 5 years? 48:27 – The impact that ACS funding has had on this area of research 49:54 – “Another very important distinction about ACS…” 51:47 – How inflammatory breast cancer recently affected her family