Annals of Surgical Treatment and Research  2014;87(6):336-339

doi:10.4174/astr.2014.87.6.336

Axillary sparganosis which was misunderstood lymph node metastasis during neoadjuvant chemotheraphy in a breast cancer patient.

Eun Kyoung LEE 1 ; Young Bum YOO

Affiliations

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Keywords

Sparganosis; Axilla; Breast carcinoma

Country

Republic of Korea

Language

English

Abstract

Sparganosis of the breast is an uncommon disease, but should be considered in the differential diagnosis of unusual and suspicious breast masses. A history of ingesting contaminated water and direct ingestion of snakes and frogs may help in differential diagnosis of the mass. Complete surgical removal is the treatment of choice and provides a definite diagnosis. We report a case of multiple axillary lymph node sparganosis. It was first considered as an axillary metastasis of breast cancer because a newly axillary mass appeared in follow-up radiologic study after neoadjuvant chemotherapy. We performed curative breast cancer surgery and sparganosis was confirmed by extracting the worm during axillary dissection.