Nodular fasciitis of the breast clinically resembling breast cancer in an elderly woman: a case report

Abstract

BackgroundNodular fasciitis is a benign reactive proliferative lesion of fibroblast cells, which can occur throughout the body. However, it has rarely been reported in the breast of an elderly woman.Case presentationOur patient was an 88-year-old Asian woman who had noticed a mass in her right breast for 1 month before presentation to our hospital. The mass was elastic-hard and 20 mm in size. No qualitative diagnosis was made by core needle biopsy. Because of potentially malignant findings on mammography and ultrasonography, she underwent an excisional biopsy. Microscopically, spindle cell proliferation with abundant elastic fibers were observed. The tumor cells were positive for α-smooth muscle actin and negative for pancytokeratin, β-catenin, and cluster of differentiation 34. Based on these morphological and immunohistochemical features, a diagnosis of nodular fasciitis was made. All resection margins in the specimen were tumor-free. The patient has been disease-free for over 12 months.ConclusionsNodular fasciitis shows clinical features and imaging findings similar to those of breast cancer. To avoid unnecessary surgery, nodular fasciitis should be taken into consideration when there is spindle cell proliferation found by biopsy.

Breast nodular fasciitis in a postmenopausal woman: A case report and review of recent literature

“…It has a self-limiting course that either spontaneously resolves or can be surgically excised with little to no risk of recurrence [11] . NF in the breast is a rare occurrence but over the past 3 decades, it has increasingly been recognized as clinically important to distinguish from breast cancer to avoid misdiagnosis and overtreatment [12] . In this report, we discuss a case of breast NF (0.8 cm by ultrasound, 1.2 cm by excision) in a 68-year-old female which was initially identified as a focal asymmetry on annual screening mammography.…”

Nodular fasciitis of the breast: the report of three cases

“…Although 10–15% of patients have a history of trauma prior to such lesions [ 3 ], there was no history of trauma in our three cases. In a previously study, the mean age of the patients with NF of the breast was 39 years (ranging 17–84 years) [ 7 ]. Our three cases were conforming to the study.…”

The Rare Benign Lesion That Mimics a Malignant Tumor in Breast Parenchyma: Nodular Fasciitis of the Breast

“…Nodular fasciitis is rarely diagnosed by fine needle aspiration cytology [ 7 ] or core needle biopsy, and it usually requires excisional biopsy for histologic confirmation. While authors have reported the proliferation of neoplastic spindle cells was suspected, no definitive diagnosis was obtained with aspiration cytology [ 8 ]. Therefore surgical excision provided to examine whole specimen is important to obtain final diagnosis.…”