A case of cystic hypersecretory carcinoma of the breast

Abstract

A 54-year-old woman who had shown no abnormal findings at an examination for breast cancer performed one year before was seen at the hospital because of a right breast mass which had been felt since 1.5 months earlier. A mass 1.5cm in diameter was felt in the C area of the right breast and on the inside of it, an about 4 cm-sized induration like mastopathy was also felt in the CA area. Fine needle aspiration biopsy cytology (FNABC) of the former tumor resulted in classIII and core needle biopsy (CNB) proved no malignant cells. FNABC of the latter tumor resulted in class I. We decided to follow the patient's clinical course. Four months later the tumor in the C area enlarged to be 2cm in diameter and axillary lymph node swelling was confirmed. Another CNB of the tumor showed malignant findings and FNABC of the axillary lymph node resulted in class V. The tumor was diagnosed as T1N2aM0 and stageIIIA, and so preoperative chemotherapy was started. The tumor in the C area showed shrinkage but the induration in the A area showed no change in size, when the axillary lymph node could not be felt. The patient was operated on. Histologically the induration in the CA area was cystic hypersecretory carcinoma, non-invasive, ly0, v0, NG1, n0 (0/13), ER(-), PgR(-) and HER2=0.
We present this case of cystic hypersecretory carcinoma because this malignancy is non-invasive carcinoma and shows characteristic histopathological features.