Bilateral primary breast neuroendocrine carcinoma in a young woman: Report of a case

Abstract

Bilateral breast carcinoma accounts for approximately 5% of all patients with breast cancer, while neuroendocrine breast carcinomas comprise less than 5% of invasive breast carcinomas. In addition, most patients with breast neuroendocrine carcinomas are older. Therefore, bilateral primary breast neuroendocrine carcinoma at a young age is extremely rare. We herein report bilateral neuroendocrine carcinoma of the breast in a 29-year-old woman who underwent bilateral lumpectomy with the initial symptom of bilateral nipple discharge. Grossly, the lesions in both breasts were masses with infinite margins. Histologically, this case was consistent with primary neuroendocrine carcinoma arising in bilateral breasts. Cells from both breast tumors were positive for chromogranin A, neuron-specific enolase, synaptophysin, cytokeratin 7, estrogen receptor, and progesterone receptor, and negative for Her2, cytokeratin 34β12, cytokeratin 5/6, smooth muscle actin, p63, S-100 protein, and p53. The Ki67 and NE proliferative indices were below 1%. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported case in China of bilateral primary neuroendocrine carcinoma presenting in a young woman.

Primary Neuroendocrine Breast Carcinoma in a 13-Year-Old Girl: Ultrasonography and Pathology Findings

“…In these situations, fine needle aspiration biopsy or ultrasound-guided core needle biopsy is necessary [3, 7]. In their recent literature review, Collado-Mesa et al [3] noticed that imaging features of primary neuroendocrine tumor of the breast have been previously described by only a small number of case reports [8–13]. The published cases describe nonspecific suspicious findings and do not indicate consistent imaging characteristics of this particular carcinoma.…”

Primary neuroendocrine carcinoma of the breast: report of 2 cases and literature review

“…The number of cases with radiology findings has been too small to allow generalization of the imaging features. The imaging features of Primary Neuroendocrine Tumor of the breast have been previously described by only a small number of case reports [1] , [5] , [6] , [7] , [8] , [9] , [10] . The published cases describe nonspecific suspicious findings and do not provide ground for generalization of the imaging characteristics of this particular carcinoma ( Table 1 ).…”

The rare entity of bilateral and unilateral neuroendocrine metastases to the breast: a case series and literature review

“…The mean age of presentation for metastatic breast NENs is considered to be 56 years, which is by 10 years younger than the patients presenting with primary NENs of the breast, usually in their sixth and seventh decade of life [22]. However, the presentation of bilateral NEN metastases to the breast remains an extremely rare manifestation of the disease [1,31,32,60].…”