What causes this type of cancer? How is it normally treated? What is the cure rate? Will I have to take medication for the rest of my life?

Prior to 1975, inflammatory breast cancer was treated with either surgery or radiation therapy or the two together, but without chemotherapy or hormone therapy. The results of that were very poor because of the very aggressive nature of the disease. So in general terms, less than 5% of patients would survive five years. When the combination chemotherapy was introduced into this combined treatment approach, with surgery and radiation therapy, the five year survival increased to somewhere between 30 and 40% in most reports. That continues to be the case today. So about one in three patients with inflammatory breast cancer will survive five years, and the great majority of those who do are probably cured of their inflammatory breast cancer. Most of the recurrences of inflammatory breast cancer have been very early, within the first couple of years.

The majority of inflammatory breast cancers are not hormone dependent, and if in addition to that they do not have the HER2 gene, the treatment will probably be completed in nine months. If the HER2 gene is amplified, in addition to chemo and surgery and radiation, one would probably use Herceptin for about a year. If the inflammatory breast cancer in a particular patient also has estrogen or progesterone receptors, one would use in addition to chemotherapy, radiation and surgery, an aromatase inhibitor like Femara (chemical name: letrozole). That would require at least five years of treatment, possibly longer, and it is possible that as new knowledge evolves, that might mean for life. But I estimate that applies to a minority of patients with inflammatory breast cancer.