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Atlas of breast cancer early detection

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Case number:073
Age:47
Clinical presentation:Premenopausal woman with average risk of developing breast cancer presented with a lump in her right breast. On clinical examination, she had a hard lump in the upper outer quadrant of the right breast.


Mammography:


Breast composition:ACR category c (the breasts are heterogeneously dense, which may obscure small masses)
Mammography features:

 ‣ Location of the lesion:Right breast, upper outer quadrant at 10 o’clock, middle third
 ‣ Mass:
   • Number:1
   • Size:Not measurable in the dense breast parenchyma, approximately 2.0 cm
   • Shape:Irregular
   • Margins:Indistinct
   • Density:High
 ‣ Calcifications:
   • Typically benign:None
   • Suspicious:Coarse
   • Distribution:In mass
 ‣ Architectural distortion:Present
 ‣ Asymmetry:Focal
 ‣ Intramammary node:None
 ‣ Skin lesion:None
 ‣ Solitary dilated duct:None
 ‣ Associated features:Coarse calcifications in mass

Ultrasound:


Ultrasound features: Right breast, outer quadrants at 9–10 o’clock

 ‣ Mass
   • Location:Right breast, outer quadrants at 9–10 o’clock
   • Number:2
   • Size:
  • Lesion 1: 2.0 × 1.7 cm in upper outer quadrant at 10 o’clock position.
  • Lesion 2: 1.1 × 0.7 cm in outer quadrant at 9 o’clock position
   • Shape:Irregular
   • Orientation:Not parallel
   • Margins:Spiculated
   • Echo pattern:Hypoechoic
   • Posterior features:No posterior features
 ‣ Calcifications:None
 ‣ Associated features:Internal vascularity
 ‣ Special cases:None

BI-RADS:

BI-RADS Category: 5 (highly suggestive of malignancy)

Further assessment:

Further assessment advised: Referral for cytology

Cytology:

Cytology features:

 ‣ Type of sample:FNAC (solid lesion)
 ‣ Site of biopsy:
   • Laterality:Right
   • Quadrant:Upper outer
   • Localization technique:Palpation
   • Nature of aspirate:Whitish
 ‣ Cytological description:Smears are very cellular and show loosely cohesive ductal epithelial cells. Many of these cells show nuclear pleomorphism, nuclear overlapping, and occasionally prominent nucleoli
 ‣ Reporting category:Malignant
 ‣ Diagnosis:Carcinoma – high grade
 ‣ Comments:None


Histopathology:

Breast-conserving surgery



Histopathology features:

 ‣ Specimen type:Breast-conserving surgery
 ‣ Laterality:Right
 ‣ Macroscopy:On cut surface of the specimen, a firm, poorly circumscribed area (2 × 1.2 × 0.8 cm) is seen, which is 0.3 cm from the base. Another whitish area of fibrosis (3.0 × 3.0 × 2.0 cm ) with a few cysts is 1.0 cm from the lateral margin
 ‣ Histological type:Invasive carcinoma of no special type
 ‣ Histological grade:Grade 3 (3 + 2 + 3 = 8)
 ‣ Mitosis:22
 ‣ Maximum invasive tumour size:Largest 3.0 cm in greatest dimension (another is 2.0 cm)
 ‣ Lymph node status:5/21
 ‣ Peritumoural lymphovascular invasion:Present
 ‣ DCIS/EIC:Solid and cribriform type – intermediate grade
 ‣ Margins:Free of tumour
 ‣ Pathological stage:pT2(2)N0
 ‣ Biomarkers:
 ‣ Comments:Benign proliferative breast disease such as UDH, cyst formation, and apocrine change

Case summary:

Premenopausal woman presented with lump in the right breast. Diagnosed as right breast carcinoma (multifocal), BI-RADS 5 on imaging, as carcinoma breast on cytology, and as invasive breast carcinoma of no special type, pT2(2)N0 on histopathology.

Learning points:


  • Heterogeneously dense breasts obscure optimal visualization of the breast mass lesions. Supplementary breast ultrasound in this case clearly shows the two foci of cancer, both in the same quadrant.

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