Inflammatory breast cancer with excellent response to pembrolizumab-chemotherapy combination: A case report
Department
Internal Medicine
Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Breast Disease
Abstract
Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is a rare variety of breast cancer accounting for two percent of breast cancer diagnoses in the United States. It is characterized by peau d'orange, breast edema and erythema on physical examination and dermal lymphatic invasion by tumor emboli on histological examination. Micrometastases to lymphatics and bone marrow at the time of diagnosis and angiogenic properties of IBC explain the high propensity of this cancer to relapse and metastasize, its aggressiveness and poor prognosis. Preoperative sequential anthracycline and taxane (plus trastuzumab and pertuzumab if HER2-positive) based chemotherapy is the current standard of care for IBC. We herein report a case of stage IIIC triple-negative IBC treated with pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy based neoadjuvant therapy with a complete clinical and complete pathological response. This is the first case of triple-negative IBC treated with this regimen reported in the literature, thereby providing clinical data on the tolerability and efficacy of pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy based neoadjuvant regimen for the treatment of IBC.
First Page
255
Last Page
260
DOI
10.3233/BD-210041
Volume
41
Issue
1
Publication Date
5-17-2022
PubMed ID
35599460
Recommended Citation
Kharel, Z., Nemer, O. P., Xi, W., Upadhayaya, B., Falkson, C. I., O'Regan, R. M., & Dhakal, A. (2022). Inflammatory breast cancer with excellent response to pembrolizumab-chemotherapy combination: A case report. Breast Disease, 41 (1), 255-260. https://doi.org/10.3233/BD-210041