Abstract
The patient was a 33-year-old lactating woman with left-sided breast cancer. Because of a strong family history of breast cancer, she was suspected to have hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (HBOC). After being diagnosed with triple-negative left-sided breast cancer, she underwent mastectomy and sentinel lymph node biopsy. Genetic testing following adjuvant chemotherapy confirmed the BRCA1 mutation.
Although postoperative ultrasonography (USG) at six months and mammography (MMG) at one year revealed no abnormal findings, USG at 18 months showed a second cancer in the right breast. The patient underwent mastectomy and sentinel lymph node biopsy. She has remained recurrence-free for 30 months without treatment, to date, since the second surgery.
The lesions could not be detected on MMG, but were visible on USG and MRI. In our hospital, postoperative surveillance for HBOC is performed every six months with USG.
In Western countries, MMG and MRI have been recommended in postoperative surveillance guidelines. However, USG, which can be performed frequently, is not associated with a considerable risk of radiation exposure and does not involve contrast agent use. Thus, USG is also considered to be useful for surveillance of HBOC, which is associated with a high incidence of second cancers.
