In the TNBC subset of IBC, 8/19 (42 %) showed MYC amplification (median copy number 8X, range 7-20) as compared to 9/32 (28 %) in non-TNBC IBC (median copy number 7X, range 6-21).
These data suggest that 11p14 allelic loss plays a role in the evolution of human breast cancer, amplification of c-erbB-2 gene is associated with increasing stage of malignancy, and alteration of the c-myc gene in inflammatory breast carcinoma may contribute to the rapid progression of this human tumor subtype.