A case of left breast cancer associated with Recklinghausen's disease is reported, together with a review of the Japanese literature. A 70-year-old woman was seen at the hospital because of a left breast mass 3.5×3.0 cm in size. There was a history of having numerous tumors and cafe au lait spots in the whole body skin since her youth. And her father and one of two daughters have been diagnosed as Recklinghausen's disease. Fine needle aspiration cytology offered a diagnosis of breast cancer. Left modified radical mastectomy (Brt+Ax) was performed. Histologically, the breast tumor was invasive ductal carcinoma (papillotubular carcinoma) with lymph node metastasis. It was breast cancer of t2 n1 α M0 in stage II.
Recklinghausen's disease is often associated with non-epitherial and/or neurogenic malignant tumor, but uncommonly with epitherial malignant tumor. As far as we could examine, twenty-six cases of breast cancer with Recklinghausen's disease have been reported in the Japanese literature. Eighteen of twenty-two cases described their preoprative stagings were in more than Stage II. Therefore, when we encounter Recklinghausen's disease, systemic and careful examination are essential, especially care must be taken not to misdiagnose a breast cancer as skin tumor in these cases.