Metastatic lobular breast carcinoma to the pancreas: a case report

Abstract

We report a case of a 72-year-old female, with an extensive breast cancer history, who presented with abdominal pain to her general practitioner. Cross-sectional imaging demonstrated a lesion in the head of pancreas, which was not amenable to curative resection. Percutaneous biopsy was obtained, which demonstrated metastatic lobular breast cancer. This rare case highlights how previous medical histories may assist in final pathological diagnosis.

A rare case report of recurrent metastatic breast cancer mimicking primary pancreatic cancer

“…Some authors have suggested that surgical resection may be appropriate for both symptom control and formal diagnosis [ 2 ]. Although experience in pancreatic metastasectomy is limited [ 1 ] and evidence-based guidelines are lacking [ 4 , 10 ], it is nonetheless well-accepted that surgical resection of pancreatic metastases can produce reasonably good long-term survival rates, quality of life and even be curative in selected cases with favorable patient and tumor factors [ 1 , 4 , 9 , 12 ].…”

“…Over the last decade, the increasing utilization of imaging methods has increased the detection of unusual pancreatic tumors [ 1 ]. Secondary tumors of the pancreas should be considered in the differential diagnosis of pancreatic lesions especially with a history of previous malignancy [ 2 ], even though their rarity may lead to diagnostic challenges [ 3 ]. In fact, metastatic disease to the pancreas constitutes only for 2% of pancreatic malignancies [ 4 ], of which a breast primary is extremely rare, accounting for under 5% of metastatic pancreatic masses [ 5 ].…”