Metastasis to the pancreas and stomach from a breast cancer primary: a case report

ABSTRACT

A 60-year-old female with an unknown family history initially presented with signs and symptoms concerning for gastrointestinal cancer. Regular breast cancer screening and subsequent work-up around this time demonstrated the presence of T2N1 stage II triple positive ductal adenocarcinoma of the left breast. Follow-up imaging for her gastrointestinal symptoms demonstrated a 3.5 cm solitary mass in the pancreas and diffuse thickening of the stomach wall. Biopsies of the gastrointestinal lesions were identified as metastatic foci of the breast cancer primary. Breast cancer metastases to the stomach and to the pancreas are both very rare events. Of the breast cancer primaries that do metastasize to the gastrointestinal system, it is unusual for the primary to be ductal adenocarcinoma. The rapid succession of diagnosing the primary source of breast cancer simultaneously with its metastases is also unusual. Timely identification and appropriate management of these rare metastases was made possible due to routine breast cancer screening.

KEYWORDS:

• Breast cancer
• metastasis
• cancer screening
• invasive ductal carcinoma
• gastrointestinal cancer

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Dr. David Weisman for writing assistance, and to Dr. Christian Hansen for providing pathology slides and writing assistance

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.