Anorectal metastasis from breast carcinoma: a case report and review of the literature

Abstract

BackgroundGastrointestinal metastasis from primary breast carcinoma is uncommon, anorectal involvement is extremely rare.Case presentationWe present the case of a 65-year old woman who underwent treatment for an infiltrative lobular carcinoma of the left breast with bone metastases and who developed metastasis of the rectum and anal canal 4 years later.ConclusionsA patient with a history of breast cancer, especially lobular carcinoma, presenting with anorectal symptoms, should raise the suspicion of metastatic disease.

Metastatic Anal Lesion of Primary Lobular Breast Carcinoma- An Insidious, Rare and Subclinical Progression: Case Report and Review of the Literature

“…Excluding our, only seven individual cases of anal involvement are present in literature so far, four with a history of invasive lobular carcinoma [4,7,8,10] and three with a history of invasive ductal carcinoma [5,6,9]. In one case metastasis were discovered during the diagnosis of the primary breast tumor and in another case even 27 months before the diagnosis of the primary breast tumor.…”

“…In our case, GIT recurrence occurred 11 years after treatment of pT2N1aM0 breast cancer. Recurrences of lobular breast cancer have been reported up to 30 years after the initial diagnosis [10]. The combination of its rarity, the often unusually long interval and the non-specific clinical presentation makes the diagnosis of GI metastasis from primary breast carcinoma a challenge.…”

“…Articles and abstracts were also identified by back referencing from original and relevant papers. The thorough literature review revealed only seven individual cases of anal involvement, up to date (Table 1) [4][5][6][7][8][9][10].…”

Rare Metastases in Colorectum of Infiltrating Ductal Breast Cancer: A Rare Case Report and Review

“…Though survival has improved due to treatment advancements, incipient screening, and intensified healthy awareness, there are still 30% of breast cancers developing metastatic diseases after treatment and 5-10% are metastatic, stage IV, at diagnosis [3]. And in general, patients with metastatic breast cancer have a poor prognosis, for most can only survive 1to 2 years [4][5][6][7].…”

“…Infiltrating ductal cancer ranks the most common type of breast carcinomas while invasive lobular cancer ranks the second most common type [7]. Breast cancer rarely metastasizes to the GI tract and invasive ductal carcinoma presents only 0.2% of all cases in contrast to 4.5% of invasive lobular carcinoma [16,17].…”