Developmental therapeutics for inflammatory breast cancer: Biology and translational directions

Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is a rare and aggressive form of breast cancer, which accounts for approximately 3% of cases of breast malignancies. Diagnosis relies largely on its clinical presentation, and despite a characteristic phenotype, underlying molecular mechanisms are poorly understood. Unique clinical presentation indicates that IBC is a distinct clinical and biological entity when compared to non-IBC. Biological understanding of non-IBC has been extrapolated into IBC and targeted therapies for HER2 positive (HER2+) and hormonal receptor positive non-IBC led to improved patient outcomes in the recent years. This manuscript reviews recent discoveries related to the underlying biology of IBC, clinical progress to date and suggests rational approaches for investigational therapies.