Breast cancer is a common malignancy in women and frequently metastasizes to various organs such as liver, lung, brain, bone and so on. But metastasis to gastrointestinal tract is rare. We describe a 73-year-old woman with small intestinal metastasis of breast cancer. She was diagnosed as right breast cancer in stage I, received modified radical mastectomy 6 years ago and had been followed up without any evidence of residual disease. During investigation for lower abdominal pain and weight loss of 9 kg, we found a small bowel mass. The histology of the tissue taken from small bowel mass was adenocarcinoma, poorly differentiated. The immunohistochemical stain of this specimen showed 75% positivity of estrogen receptor and 90% positivity of progesterone receptor. This is a case of small bowel metastasis from breast cancer and we report this case with a review of literatures.
Adenocarcinoma/*secondary ; Aged ; Breast Neoplasms/*pathology ; English Abstract ; Female ; Humans ; Intestinal Neoplasms/diagnosis/*secondary ; Intestine, Small

Breast Neoplasms ; diagnosis ; pathology ; Female ; Humans ; Leiomyosarcoma ; diagnosis ; pathology ; Middle Aged ; Skin Neoplasms ; pathology ; secondary

OBJECTIVETo study the clinical characteristics and MR imaging features of intracranial metastasis from malignant tumors.

METHODS1271 patients who had history of primary tumor and suspected of cranial metastasis had MRI on Philips Gyroscan T5-NT MR scanner. The sequences included pre-contrast T(1)WI, FLAIR, and postcontrast transversal, sagittal, and coronal T(1)WI. All of the clinical data and MRI features of the patients were recorded and analyzed.

RESULTSOf 547 patients with intracranial metastasis, 393 came from lung cancer (71.9%), 10% of 547 patients were found to have the presenting symptoms of cranial metastasis. 526 had parenchymal cerebral metastasis, and 21 only meningeal metastasis. Of these 526 patients found to have brain metastasis, 164 had single metastasis (31.2%), and 362 multiple (68.8%). Most of the cerebral metastatic lesions showed uniform or ring enhancement after intravenous injection of contrast medium, dura-arachnoid metastasis showed continuous and thick-curve enhancement at the cerebral convex, but not extending to the sulcus, while pia-dura metastasis displayed as thin and linear or nodular enhancement extending to the adjacent sulci.

CONCLUSIONThe most common primary lesion with metastasis to the brain were lung cancers, followed by breast and gastrointestinal cancers. By using gadolinium-DTPA enhanced MR imaging, many single and small cerebral metastasis could be found earlier.

Adult ; Aged ; Brain Neoplasms ; diagnosis ; secondary ; Breast Neoplasms ; pathology ; Female ; Gastrointestinal Neoplasms ; pathology ; Humans ; Lung Neoplasms ; pathology ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Male ; Meningeal Neoplasms ; diagnosis ; secondary ; Middle Aged

Many patients suffering from breast carcinoma have metastases at initial diagnosis. The common metastatic sites are skeleton, liver and lung. Metastases to stomach are rare and only three cases have been reported in Korea. The endoscopic features of gastric metastases from breast carcinoma can be divided into three main categories: diffuse infiltration, external compression, and localized tumor deposition with ulceration or with a polypoid mass. However, metastatic gastric lesions which resemble early gastric carcinoma are rare. Typically, gastric metastases are confined to submucosa and muscularis, so that mucosal biopsy specimens might be false-negative. We report a case of gastric metastasis from infiltrative lobular carcinoma of the breast in a 66-year-old woman who had undergone left mastectomy with postoperative radiotherapy 17 years earlier. Initial diagnosis was early gastric carcinoma, signet ring cell type on gastric biopsy findings. However, definitive diagnosis of metastatic breast cancer was confirmed after endoscopic mucosal resection of a presumed primary early gastric carcinoma.
Aged ; Breast Neoplasms/*pathology ; Carcinoma, Lobular/diagnosis/pathology/*secondary ; Diagnosis, Differential ; English Abstract ; Female ; Gastric Mucosa/pathology ; Humans ; Stomach Neoplasms/*diagnosis/pathology/*secondary

Adult ; Breast Neoplasms ; secondary ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Female ; Humans ; Melanoma ; metabolism ; pathology ; secondary ; Melanoma-Specific Antigens ; metabolism ; Middle Aged ; S100 Proteins ; metabolism ; Sarcoma, Clear Cell ; pathology ; Skin Neoplasms ; pathology

Breast metastasis from nonmammary malignant neoplasms is uncommon, and it accounts for approximately 2% of all breast tumors. Distant metastasis of thymoma is very rare, and especially to extrathorcic areas. We report a female who had a metastatic thymoma in her breast 20 years after undergoing resection for a non-invasive thymoma. She presented with a palpable mass in her left breast. Mammography and ultrasonogram showed a lobular mass at the anterior glandular portion. Histological examination after surgical excision revealed a metastatic thymoma.
Breast Neoplasms/diagnosis/*secondary/surgery ; Female ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Middle Aged ; Thymoma/diagnosis/*secondary/surgery ; Thymus Neoplasms/diagnosis/*pathology/surgery ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed ; Ultrasonography, Mammary

Although the lung, liver, or bones are the most common location for distant metastases in breast cancer patients, metastases to the intestinal tract are very rarely recognized in the clinic. We will present an unusual case of colonic metastasis from a carcinoma of the breast that mimics a primary intestinal cancer, along with a through review of English language medical literature. Despite the fact that isolated gastrointestinal (GI) metastases are very rare and much less common than benign disease processes or second primaries of the intestinal tract in patients with a history of breast cancer, metastatic disease should be given consideration whenever a patient experiences GI symptoms.
Tomography, X-Ray Computed/methods ; Neoplasms, Second Primary/diagnosis ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Intestinal Neoplasms/*diagnosis ; Humans ; Female ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Colonic Neoplasms/*diagnosis/*secondary ; Carcinoma/diagnosis/*pathology ; Breast Neoplasms/diagnosis/*pathology ; Breast/pathology ; Adult

A case of primary malignant fibrous histiocytoma of the breast is reported. The patient was a 48-yr-old woman with a huge tumor involving almost the entire left breast. The central portion of her left breast was already rotted by extensive necrosis and inflammation. She was treated by radical mastectomy and axillary lymphadenectomy to level I. Pathologic examination supported by an immunohistochemical staining confirmed the tumor as malignant fibrous histiocytoma of giant cell type. Axillary lymph nodes were free from tumor metastasis. She had not taken any postoperative adjuvant therapy. The metastasis to lungs was found 2 months after the operation, and she died within 6 months.
Breast/pathology ; Breast Neoplasms/*diagnosis/*pathology ; Female ; Giant Cells/*pathology ; Histiocytoma, Fibrous/*diagnosis/*pathology ; Human ; Immunohistochemistry ; Lung Neoplasms/mortality/secondary ; Middle Aged ; Myxosarcoma/diagnosis/pathology ; Necrosis ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Sarcoma/diagnosis/pathology

According to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, we searched for relevant original articles in some big Chinese and English databases. The qualities of the studies were evaluated with QUADAS quality assessment tool. A software program, Meta-disc, was used to obtain the pooled estimates and heterogeneity test for sensitivity, specificity, SROC curve, and so on. Finally the 17 article were included. On a per-patient basis, the pooled sensitivity (SEN), specificity (SPE), positive likelihood ratio (LR+), negative likelihood ratio (LR-), diagnostic odds ratio (DOR), Q*, SROC area under curve for 99mTc-MDP bone scan and computed tomography (CT) were 0. 87 and 0.99, 0.81 and 0.98, 3.88 and 13.86, 0.2 and 0.03, 27.73 and 612.17, 0.8418 and 0.9732, 0.9097 and 0.9952, respectively. On a per-focus basis, the pooled SEN, SPE, LR+, LR-, DOR, Q*, SROC area under curve for 99mTc-MDP bone scan was 0.86, 0.97, 13.32, 0.16, 102.4, 0.8944, 0.9528, respectively. For CT, only 1 article were included. This paper demonstrate: whether 99mTc-MDP or CT both have high diagnostic efficiency for bone metastase of breast cancer.
Bone Neoplasms ; diagnosis ; secondary ; Breast Neoplasms ; pathology ; Female ; Humans ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Technetium Tc 99m Medronate ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

Breast Neoplasms ; metabolism ; pathology ; surgery ; Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast ; metabolism ; secondary ; surgery ; Carrier Proteins ; metabolism ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Endometrial Neoplasms ; metabolism ; secondary ; Female ; Glycoproteins ; metabolism ; Humans ; Immunohistochemistry ; Keratin-7 ; metabolism ; Mastectomy, Modified Radical ; Middle Aged ; Ovarian Neoplasms ; metabolism ; secondary