MUCINOUS CARCINOMA OF THE BREAST WAS DIFFICULT TO DISTINGUISH FROM ECCRINE GLAND CARCINOMA-REPORT OF A CASE-

Abstract

The patient was a 44-year-old woman, whose chief complaint was a mass in the right chest. Eight years previously, an approximately 8mm mass had been found at the right chest and left shoulder, for which excional biopsy was performed. The pathological diagnosis was steatocystoma multiplex. This time, the mass was found in the B-region of the right breast. The patient did not see a doctor at first because she thought it was the same as the previous mass, but when it increased in size rapidly, she came to our hospital. For a definite diagnosis, we performed excision biopsy. In the frozen-section diagnosis, we could tell that the specimen was mucinous carcinoma, though it was difficult to determine whether it was mucinous carcinoma of breast tissue origin or eccrine gland origin. Later, under a diagnosis of mucinous carcinoma of breast tissue origin, we performed the Auchincloss' operation. Mucinous carcinoma is a relatively rare form of the breast cancer. Most cases may be clearly diagnosed as being of breast tissue origin, but this case was very difficult to distinguish from mucinous eccrine carcinoma. From pathological data, we definitively diagnosed it was mucinous carcinoma from breast origin. When we encounter a subcutaneous mucinous tumor of the breast, we should consider not only skin origin but also breast origin.