Nobody Is Listening: Stories of Inflammatory Breast Cancer - Tapa blanda

This book tells stories of ordinary women and their families who find themselves in a situation that they would have never imagined, facing an unknown killer disease for which nobody knows what to do. Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC) is the most aggressive type of breast cancer, in which the cancer cells block the lymph vessels in the skin of the breast. It is called inflammatory because the breast often becomes swollen and red, or inflamed, sometimes overnight. It is a breast cancer without a lump, and it is deadly.

We hope that, through the knowledge that is gained from reading these stories, there will come an understanding of the cause and hopefully a cure for this devastating disease.

Patti Bradfield started her writing and photographic career 35 years before her daughter was diagnosed with IBC. As an investigative reporter, she pushed into every corner of news and publications to educate everyone about this disease, which is killing women at an alarming rate. Patti has been working with IBC patients since 2003, when her journey began with her daughter, helping them find doctors that would not only listen to their pleas, but actually be knowledgeable about IBC and how to treat it properly. Together with Dr. Cristofanilli and Jenee Bobbora, Patti founded The Inflammatory Breast Cancer Foundation. She also started an Internet radio show, IBC Facts & Fallacies, with the foundation’s secretary, Peggy Stephens. The show is now into its sixth year. Patti has retired from the foundation but remains a strong advocate for women who need help, as well as a loud voice in the medical community where, in some places in the United States, IBC is still neither diagnosed nor treated properly.

Dr. Massimo Cristofanilli graduated from the University “La Sapienza” in Rome and completed medical oncology training in Italy. He came to the United States with the intent of pursuing his dream of focusing on patient-centered clinical and translational research in breast cancer. He completed an internship and residency at Cabrini Medical Center in New York. He then completed a fellowship at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Cristofanilli’s concept of team science and multidisciplinary research and care have been applied to IBC since 2006, when he founded the world’s first IBC clinic: the Morgan Welch Inflammatory Breast Cancer Program and Clinic at MD Anderson. The clinic was dedicated to a young woman who had lost her battle with IBC. He continued to apply those principles when he moved to Philadelphia, first at the Fox Chase Cancer Center and now at Thomas Jefferson University, where he is currently the Director of the Breast Care Center. Dr. C., as most IBC patients call him, is married and the father of two children. His passion is to find the root cause of IBC and make sure women get the best of care that science can give them.