A Case-Control Study of Inflammatory Breast Cancer in North Africa

Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is a rare, poorly understood and particularly aggressive form of breast cancer characterized by diffuse erythema and edema/peau d orange of the breast. The proposed case-control study of risk factors for IBC will include approximately 400 IBC cases accrued over a two-year period in centers in four countries in North Africa (the major cancer center and selected private clinicians in Tunisia, the major cancer center in Egypt, 2 cancer centers in Algeria, and 2 cancer centers in Morocco). Two control groups will be included: 1) 400 non-IBC breast cancer cases and; 2) 400 visitor controls (excluding those with breast, ovarian, endometrial, and nasopharyngeal cancers) in the study hospitals. The study will involve the administration of a questionnaire, anthropometric measurements, and saliva collection for all study subjects. In addition, digital photographs of the breasts will be collected for IBC cases, and a clinical examination form and paraffin-embedded tumor tissue will be collected for IBC cases and non-IOBC breast cancer controls. The study will be conducted as a consortium, with form development and translation coordinated at the National Cancer Institute (USA). A review of study procedures will be done after the first three months of data collection. The National Cancer Institute (NCI)-Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics (DCEG), NCI-Office of International Affairs (OIA), University of Michigan, and International Breast Cancer Research Foundation (IBCRF) will provide funding for the project.