HOUSTON -- Checking for breast cancer is part of many women's annual medical exam. But there is a new form that is not being talked about, and the silence is killing women, KPRC Local 2 reported Monday.

Inflammatory breast cancer is one of the most aggressive cancers out there. Doctors say within three months, this disease can take over the entire breast and keep spreading.

It does not appear on a mammogram. It does not feel like a lump. In fact, many of the women who get it had no idea it was out there.

Audrey Wagner had a strange wish.

"I kept thinking, 'Why couldn't it just be a regular breast cancer?'" she said.

Wagner ended up in the fight of her life against an attacker that she did not even know existed.

"I just noticed some redness on my breast," she said.

It was inflammatory breast cancer.

"Of course, you go right to the Internet. It will scare you to death, because it doesn't give you much hope," Wagner said.

Most doctors will not recognize it.

"Even a community gynecologist may not see many of these, so making a misdiagnosis is extremely easy," said Dr. Massimo Cristofanilli with MD Anderson Hospital.

Cristofanilli said the signs appear to be innocent -- a swollen breast, a rash with the texture of an orange peel, a red spot.

Mark Welch's wife, Morgan, had IBC.

"Morgan was experiencing something that resembled a mosquito bite on her right breast," Welch said. "They initially diagnosed it as an inflammation infection, and they gave her antibiotics."

Morgan Welch still thought she had a simple infection when she married Mark.

"The doctors would say all these characteristics we can't … oh well, we can't rule cancer out, but what are the odds?" Mark Welch said.

Five weeks later, they found out.

"She said, 'Yeah, I've got cancer,' and she sat in that chair and I held her and she cried. I didn't understand it," Mark Welch said.

Within months, a nest of cancer consumed Morgan's breast.

"I have learned that no one knows about inflammatory breast cancer," Wagner said. "Why isn't someone telling everyone about this?"

One reason is it is considered an orphan disease affecting only 2 to 3 percent of breast cancer patients. So, the numbers for awareness just are not there.

According to Cristofanilli, neither is the research.

"I think a lack of resources, a lack of really devoted resources is really something that is missing and would make a difference if we can have it," he said.

Morgan Welch died on Jan. 29 at 24 years old.

She was the youngest patient Cristofanilli had ever treated.

The doctor carries the couple's wedding picture in his pocket every day to continue a quest to make good on an old promise.

"I shook his hand and said, 'Sir, I want to thank you for trying, and I want you to keep the fight going because I know you are going to be in the battle, and you are going to win this one day. For what it is worth, don't let this set you back,'" Mark Welch said.

"I am still in the middle of this battle because I have not succeeded yet," Cristofanilli said.

"They need to be aware of how it works because when you find it, it is already there and it is already going. It is going fast," Wagner said.

Wagner finished her last treatment in June, but just weeks ago the spots returned.

"If it was regular breast cancer, I would have been fine … a survivor, you know?" Wagner said. "Possibly, I am going to be a survivor for this one."

Half the women who have IBC will die within five years. While the average age of a patient is between 45 and 55 years old, Cristofanilli said doctors are seeing younger women with even more aggressive forms of IBC.

Since it is often mistaken for an infection or bite, doctors suggest undergoing one round of antibiotics. If it is not gone within a week, ask your doctor for an aspiration test, also known as a biopsy, to rule out breast cancer.

More Information:

M.D. Anderson: Inflammatory Breast Cancer Information
www.ibcresearch.org, 877-786-7422