IV 111th CONGRESS 1st Session H. RES. 395 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES May 4, 2009 Mrs. McCarthy of New York submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce RESOLUTION Supporting efforts to raise awareness, improve education, and encourage research of inflammatory breast cancer.

Whereas inflammatory breast cancer is a rare but very aggressive type of breast cancer in which the cancer cells block the lymph vessels in the skin of the breast; Whereas inflammatory breast cancer accounts for between 1 and 6 percent of all breast cancer cases in the United States; Whereas inflammatory breast cancer is more common than acute lymphoblastic leukemia in children; Whereas inflammatory breast cancer may have environmental causes; Whereas inflammatory breast cancer is particularly difficult to detect because the early signs of breast cancer, such as a breast lump or suspicious area on a routine screening mammogram, are rarely present in inflammatory breast cancer; Whereas inflammatory breast cancer tends to affect women at a younger age than most breast cancers; Whereas black women are more likely to have inflammatory breast cancer than white women; Whereas inflammatory breast cancer is more likely to have metastasised at the time of diagnosis than noninflammatory breast cancer cases; Whereas the 5 year survival rate for patients with inflammatory breast cancer is between 25 and 50 percent, which is significantly lower than the survival rate for patients with noninflammatory breast cancer; Whereas the incidence rate for inflammatory breast cancer is on the rise, and the cause of this increase is unknown; Whereas organizations such as the Inflammatory Breast Cancer Foundation are working to increase awareness of the disease in the public and medical communities; Whereas the MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas is among one of the only facilities in the country to have a clinic specifically dedicated to inflammatory breast cancer; and Whereas many physicians remain unaware of inflammatory breast cancer and diagnosis is frequently delayed due to a lack of knowledge in both the lay and medical communities: Now, therefore, be it

That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that the Federal Government has a responsibility to— (1)endeavor to raise awareness and improve education about inflammatory breast cancer; (2)encourage the American Medical Association to take steps to immediately increase awareness of inflammatory breast cancer among physicians; (3)encourage research that will improve treatments for inflammatory breast cancer; and (4)continue to consider ways to improve access to information on inflammatory breast cancer for both doctors and patients.