Metaplastic breast cancer is a rare form of primary breast cancer. It contains a mixture of adenocarcinoma with metaplastic elements. It is important to differentiate with primary sarcoma of the breast which carries different treatment strategies and prognosis. A 55-year-old lady previously diagnosed to have a left breast cancer in the year 2000 and carcinoma of the endometrium in 2009, presented with a right breast lump. A trucut biopsy reported as an infiltrating ductal carcinoma with background of chondromyxoid and cartilagenous matrix, most probably metaplastic carcinoma. A wide local excision with sentinel lymph node biopsy was performed, and the final histology was consistent with metaplastic chondroid carcinoma of the breast with no evidence of metastsis. The surgery was followed by adjuvant radiotherapy and currently free from any recurrence. The diagnostic dilemma on this very rare condition is reviewed.

Radiotherapy has been widely use as an adjuvant therapy in the breast cancer management. The usage has increased the incidence of radiation induce sarcoma. We here present a case of radiation induce sarcoma of the axilla following mastectomy and axillary lymph node dissection for infiltrating ductal carcinoma.

A surgeon’s experience plays an important role in breast conserving surgery (BCS). The common conception is that, the more junior is the operating surgeon, the surgical margin will be wider or closer to the tumour edge. Thus the aim of this study is to look into the adequacy of surgical margin performed by different level of surgeons’ experience in patients whom underwent wide local excision (WLE) and hook-wire localization (HWL) in our surgical unit. The surgical experience of the operating surgeon and their surgical margins will be analyzed. This is a retrospective study from January 2000 to December 2012. Eighty-eight patients with early breast cancer underwent WLE and HWL by 3 different groups of surgeons (breast surgeons, junior surgeons and surgical registrars) were included. The surgical margins were analyzed for involved-margin, closed-margin or excessed-margin.The incidence of involved-margin, closed-margin and excessed-margin is the lowest among breast surgeons compared to other groups. However, the results were not statistically significant. The incidence of involved surgical margin is significantly higher within junior surgeons for HWL compared to the breast surgeons. The incidence of involved, closed or excessed surgical margin were lowest when performed by breast surgeon but not significantly different between the three groups. However, for HWL the breast surgeons significantly better compared to the other groups.
Breast Neoplasms ; Surgeons