Research Paper Proposal

Fatoumata Diallo

Writing for the Sciences

Professor Zayas

Research Proposal

March 19, 2025

Research proposal

The topic I will be exploring is how Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC) affects women and new treatments.

Introduction: Breast cancer is a form of cancer that occurs in women and can very rarely occur in men and is seen when either tumor suppressor or oncogenes mutate. Inflammatory Breast Cancer is a rare and very aggressive form of breast Cancer. It only accounts for 1% to 5% of all Breast Cancer. It is called “inflammatory” because some of the symptoms causes the breast to look inflamed due to cancer cells blocking lymph vessels in the skin. IBC typically does not have the same symptoms as other forms of breast Cancer and doesn’t always show up on mammograms making it harder to diagnose.

Why it matters: Inflammatory breast cancer is the least talked about form of breast cancer and has the least amount of awareness. Breast cancer awareness is crucial because it allows for women to get screened and early screening saves lives, awareness also raises funds for women to afford treatments. Studies have shown that the 5-year survival rate is still only 50% and that’s for only non-metastatic IBC. There is a huge gap between the survival rates for IBC compared to other forms of breast cancer.

What I know: Symptoms of IBC progress quickly, they include redness, swelling, swollen lymph nodes, pain, and orange peel appearance. There are two subcategories of Inflammatory breast cancer: Primary IBC and secondary IBC. Primary IBC the cancer develops in a healthy breast while in secondary the cancer reoccurs or shows up where a previous breast cancer occurred. Current treatment includes targeted therapy, Chemotherapy, Radiation therapy, and surgery

What I need to know:

  • The biology and epidemiology of IBC
  • What enviormental and gentic factors play a role in IBC
  • New treatments (proton Therapy, Targeted therapy trastuzumab (Herceptin))
  • How those treatments affect survival rates

Sources I will be using:

  • Chippa, Venu, and Hassana Barazi. “Inflammatory Breast Cancer.” StatPearls [Internet]., U.S. National Library of Medicine, 16 Apr. 2023, ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK564324/#article-111445.s2.
  • Robertson, F. M., Bondy, M., Yang, W., Yamauchi, H., Wiggins, S., Kamrudin, S., Krishnamurthy, S., Le-Petross, H., Bidaut, L., Player, A. N., Barsky, S. H., Woodward, W. A., Buchholz, T., Lucci, A., Ueno, N., & Cristofanilli, M. (2010). Inflammatory breast cancer: The disease, the biology, the treatment. CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, 60(6), 351–375. https://doi.org/10.3322/caac.20082
  • Chainitikun, S., Saleem, S., Lim, B., Valero, V., & Ueno, N. T. (2021). Update on systemic treatment for newly diagnosed inflammatory breast cancer. Journal of Advanced Research, 29, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jare.2020.08.014
  • Fattahi, S., Mullikin, T. C., Aziz, K. A., Afzal, A., Smith, N. L., Francis, L. N., Harmsen, W. S., Routman, D. M., Remmes, N. B., Ahmed, S. K., Shumway, D. A., Park, S. S., Mutter, R. W., & Corbin, K. S. (2022). Proton therapy for the treatment of inflammatory breast cancer. Radiotherapy and Oncology, 171, 77–83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.radonc.2022.04.008