Inflammatory Breast Cancer: 10-Year Follow-up of a Trial of Surgery, Chemotherapy, and Allogeneic Tumor Cell/BCG Immunotherapy

A 10-year follow-up analysis has been performed on the cohort of 13 previously reported inflammatory breast cancer patients treated with chemotherapy, surgery, and allogeneic tumor cell/BCG vaccine. Follow-up of this duration is uncommon in the literature. Data indicate an apparent plateau of the survival curve at about 5 years, with 4 of 13 patients (31%) still alive after 10 years. Also noted is a long-term survival of an off-protocol patient with metastatic breast cancer treated with chemotherapy and vaccine. Although the role of vaccine cannot be directly determined from this study, this trial did demonstrate that long-term survival is a feasible goal for a significant fraction of patients with inflammatory breast cancer.