Skeletal muscle metastasis from breast cancer: Management and literature review

Article type: Case Report

Authors: Salemis, Nikolaos S.

Affiliations: Department of Surgery, Army General Hospital, 19 Taxiarhon Street, 19014 Kapandriti, Athens, Greece. E-mail: nikos_salemis@hotmail.com

Abstract: Skeletal muscle metastasis from breast cancer is a very rare clinical entity. We describe an extremely rare case of breast cancer metastasis to the rectus abdominis muscle. Our patient, who had undergone a left modified radical mastectomy for breast cancer four years ago, presented with a painful abdominal mass. Computed tomography scans showed a rim-enhancing mass with central hypoatennuation within the sheath of the rectus abdominis muscle. A Fine needle aspiration biopsy was initially performed and the findings were suggestive of malignancy. The muscle lesion was then resected and the histopathological analysis showed metastasis of breast cancer. Through our review of the literature, we found that only two cases of rectus abdominis muscle metastasis from breast cancer have been reported so far. This case highlights the need to rule out muscle metastatic lesions in patients with history of breast cancer presenting with these clinical and imaging characteristics. Differentiation from primary sarcoma is of paramount importance. Skeletal muscle metastases usually indicate an advanced disease associated with poor prognosis. Treatment should be individualized depending on the patient's clinical condition.

Keywords: Breast cancer, muscle, metastasis

DOI: 10.3233/BD-140384

Journal: Breast Disease, vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 37-40, 2015