Abstract
Human sparganosis mansoni is an infection caused by a plerocercoid larva (sparganum) of Diphyllobothrium mansoni. This sparganum usually migrates in subcutaneous tissue. Sparganosis of the breast forming a mass, however, is rare worldwide.
A 78-year-old woman noticed a painful mass in the left breast a day before her visit. She had no history of consuming uncooked frog, snake, catfish or impure water. On physical examination, the breast mass was 20×16 mm in diameter, round and elastic firm with an indistinct border, and the left axillary lymph nodes were swollen. Ultrasonography revealed a heterogeneous, indistinct and hyper echoic mass. Mammography showed a snowman like appearance, elliptical, indistinct and high-density mass without calcification. Although these findings suggested panniculitis or breast cancer, aspiration biopsy cytology (ABC) revealed a sparganum larva in a histological examination. The extirpated mass consisted of an abscess and granulation, in which a white tapeworm was found. It was identified as sparganum histologically. The breast mass caused by sparganum is difficult to be distinguished from cancer or other diseases preoperatively. The mobile and migrating mass is characteristic of Sparganosis mansoni and preoperative ABC is a valuable diagnostic method if sparganum is obtained in cytological specimen.
