Breast carcinoma in pregnancy: a clinical case

• Published in: Annali italiani di chirurgia Vol. 73; no. 3; p. 317
• Main Authors: Cammisuli, F, Catania, V, Santuccio, A, Mirone, I, Pagano, P, Cavallaro, A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Italian
• Published: Italy 01-05-2002
• Subjects: Adult; Breast Neoplasms - therapy; Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast - therapy; Combined Modality Therapy; Female; Humans; Pregnancy; Pregnancy Complications, Neoplastic - therapy
• ISSN: 0003-469X

Breast cancer is a rare, but frequently hidden pathology. A woman, 36 years old, during the early months of pregnancy found a little tumor in her right breast. A fine needle biopsy was negative for cancer. Despite this, the tumor rose and two months after delivery (the patient breast-fed her daughter for a month), she had pain in the right axillary region and the tumors involved all superior dials of the right breast. A Madden mastectomy was performed. The histopathological report was: ductal invasive breast cancer 3 of 19 lymph nodes involved, stage IIIA, TNM pT3N2M0, ER -, PgR +--. Chemotherapeutic regimens were: at first ADM 75 mg/m2 for 5 cycles, and after CMF 1-8 for 6 cycles. After six months the woman had a cutaneous recurrence in the scar of mastectomy, treated with surgery and RT. Thirteen months after, she had lung MTS and then brain MTS. The patient died thirty months after the mastectomy. The surgeons have to discover the women high-risk for the breast cancer before and during the pregnancy. Excisional biopsy is the diagnostic procedure of choice for breast lump during pregnancy. When a breast cancer develops during a pregnancy, the surgeon has to operate immediately the tumors. Chemotherapeutic regimens should be delayed until the second o third trimester or after delivery.