Locally advanced breast cancer (LABC) comprises a heterogeneous group of diseases. It incorporates a subset of stage IIB (T3N0) disease, stage III disease and inflammatory breast cancer. In the developed world, 7% of breast cancer patients have stage III disease at diagnosis. In developing countries, LABC constitutes about 30 - 60% of all cases, most probably attributable to a lack of education and poor socioeconomic status. The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program of the National Cancer Institute, USA demonstrates a median survival of 4.9 years, while the 5-year relative survival rate for this group of women is 55% with multimodality treatment, excluding biologics.
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