Hawaii researchers study potential treatment for rare breast cancer

University of Hawaii at Manoa cancer researchers are looking into a new treatment for inflammatory breast cancer, or IBC, a particularly aggressive type of breast cancer that accounts for about 10% of U.S. breast cancer deaths annually.

The research will examine how IBC affects various demographics in Hawaii, the effectiveness of the new treatment and whether it may be applied toward other types of breast cancer, said Naoto Ueno, the recently appointed director of the UH Cancer Center.

“Our group’s exciting results examine how the surrounding cancer environment contributes to the tumor’s aggressiveness,” Ueno said in a news release. “I am very excited to bring this type of research to Hawaii so that we can help more people by understanding the disease.”

Despite a high death rate, IBC is considered rare, accounting for only about 2% to 4% of breast cancer cases in the country, Ueno told the Honolulu Star- Advertiser. Symptoms — redness and swelling of the breast tissue — differ greatly from the typical signs of breast cancer, which usually presents as lumps.

The symptoms sometimes are mistaken for an infection and IBC can go undiagnosed and undocumented, which is one reason for the lack of large cohort studies on IBC, Ueno said.

IBC is also unresponsive to typical breast cancer treatments, which is why development of a new potential treatment is so exciting, he said.

The treatment was discovered in a study led by Ueno and Xiaoping Wang at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, where Ueno was executive director of the Inflammatory Breast Cancer Research Program. During his time there, he created a comprehensive research program and clinic focused on IBC, according to UH.

The treatment involves an injectable drug that may be administered once every three weeks, Ueno said. It alters the immune landscape surrounding an IBC tumor, making it less aggressive and more treatable through chemotherapy.

So far, Ueno said, clinical trials done at the MD Anderson Cancer Center have shown about a 42% response rate.

Since IBC still doesn’t have a thoroughly vetted and approved treatment, Ueno stressed the importance of raising awareness of the cancer’s unusual symptoms.

“If you have a rapidly growing breast with redness and warmth, and you don’t feel a mass, you should go to your primary care doctor,” he said.

Some doctors may prescribe antibiotics if they suspect an infection, but if those don’t yield results, Ueno said patients should consider getting a mammogram.

Linsey Dower covers ethnic and cultural affairs and is a corps member of Report for America, a national service organization that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues and communities.