Abstract
A 54-year-old woman, who had received left radical mastectomy 12 years previously, was admitted with persistent cough and hemoptysis.
Plain chest X-ray film showed no abnormality but fiberoptic bronchoscopy revealed that a polypoid lesion occluded the right truncus intermeding and the surrounding bronchial mucosa was firm and edematous. Biopsy specimen demonstrated adenocarcinoma. Right middle and lower sleeve bilobectomy was performed. The tumor occupied mainly the outer and submucosal layer of the bronchial wall. Histologically, this tumor showed scirrhous adenocarcinoma with the same pathologic appearance as the primary breast lesion.
It is considered that endobronchial metastasis from breast carcinoma is not particularly uncommon, therefore any patient with a past history of breast cancer and respiratory symptoms should undergo fiberoptic bronchoscopy, particularly when the chest X-ray is normal or shows non-specific changes.
