Inflammatory Breast Cancer

My closest, dearest friend continues her fight against inflammatory breast cancer (IBC). If you have not heard about this disease, it is crucial that, as nurses, you know about this disease. It is very aggressive and often it is first diagnosed as a breast infection and precious time is lost searching for the right diagnosis. Since nurses may be the first health care provider to see a patient, it is very important that you are aware of the signs/symptoms of IBC in order to alert the patient's physician for further diagnostic tests. For more information:

The IBC Research Foundation has some helpful info, such as

There is more than one kind of breast cancer.

We have been taught and are reminded frequently by public service announcements and by the medical community that when a woman discovers a lump on her breast she should go to the doctor immediately. Inflammatory breast cancer usually grows in nests or sheets, rather than as a confined, solid tumor and therefore can be diffuse throughout the breast with no palpable mass. The cancer cells clog the lymphatic system just below the skin. Lymph node involvement is assumed. Increased breast density compared to prior mammograms should be considered suspicious.



Houston Chronicle - FORT WORTH, Texas - American Airlines will unveil two planes Monday featuring a pink ribbon running the length of the fuselage in
honor of its partnership with Susan G. Komen for the Cure, which includes a
$7.5 million pledge from the airline to research a rare form of breast cancer.

The two planes will be the first of eight featuring the pink
ribbon. In press releases Friday, both groups announced American's pledge
will fund research of inflammatory breast cancer, an aggressive and
frequently fatal form of the disease, at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Komen said that kind of breast cancer represents 2
to 5 percent of all breast cancer cases.

Dallas-based Komen said the grant will fund a team of patient
advocates,oncologists, pathologists and scientists working to
improve the ability to diagnose and treat the disease.

Fort Worth-based American, the world's largest airline, has
pledged to raise $1 million annually for eight years to fund the grant. The rest
of the money raised will fund health and community programs.

American said most of the funds will be raised at its annual American
Airlines Celebrity Golf and Tennis Weekend. (press release found in the Houston Chronicle. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5932483.html

Also, there is a youtube video taken during the unveiling of the plane that features a survivor of IBC.

A change in name for APNs

The Texas Board of Nursing posted proposed rules for advanced practice nursing. One of the proposed rules is to change the name of an Advanced Practice Nurse (APN) to Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) because it reflects that the nurse is both a registered nurse and an advanced practice nurse. There has also been some clean up to the advanced practice rules. The rules are available for comment at this time. [There are also other rules being proposed dealing with the Jurisprudence exam, fees, and vocational nursing education]