Abstract
We have experienced a case of breast metastasis of gastric cancer which is rare. The case involved a 69-year-old woman who underwent total gastrectomy for gastric cancer in December 2014. The tumor was diagnosed as T4aN3bM1 (P1, CY1) and stage IV ; the therapy resulted in a curability C ; and the histologic type was signet ring cell carcinoma. Since the patient refused to receive adjuvant chemotherapy, we had followed her clinical course until January 2016 when she noticed a tumor occupying the entire left breast. A fine needle biopsy cytology revealed signet ring cell carcinoma. Immunohistochemistry proved that the breast specimen was identical with the gastric cancer tissue. Breast metastasis of gastric cancer was thus diagnosed.
A literature review since 1980 revealed a total of 29 cases of breast metastasis of gastric cancer, including our case, to have been reported. These tumors were characterized by frequent occurrence in relatively young women and many cases to be of signet ring cell carcinoma or poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma. When the breast metastasis was diagnosed, the disease had often progressed and involved other organs. The one-year survival rate after the diagnosis was as poor as 14.9%. The significance of local therapies in these patients is low and further clinical studies of highly effective general therapies would be required to improve the prognosis.
