Breast Metastasis from Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma: A Rare Challenging Entity

Our plain-English summary of Breast Metastasis from Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma: A Rare Challenging Entity, by A. Catino, D. La Forgia, A. Scattone, et al (Journal of Thoracic Oncology, 2018).

The study

• Authors: A. Catino, D. La Forgia, A. Scattone, R. Dentamaro, V. Lapadula, D. Galetta
• Journal: Journal of Thoracic Oncology
• Published: 2018;13(7):e117-e118
• Type of article: Case report, Letter
• Cited by: 1 article, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This letter to the editor described a single patient. She was a 61-year-old woman who had never smoked and had advanced epithelioid pleural mesothelioma. After first-line treatment with cisplatin plus pemetrexed, her disease came back in the pleura, and at the same time a hard, fixed lump appeared behind the nipple area of her left breast. Mammography showed a 5-cm roundish thickened area with irregular edges and enlarged lymph nodes in the armpit. Contrast-enhanced spectral mammography showed a large lesion in the left breast with increased blood supply and new blood vessels. Nothing similar was seen in the right breast. Ultrasound showed a 4.5-cm lesion. Needle biopsies of the breast lesion and of an enlarged left armpit lymph node both gave a diagnosis of malignant epithelial mesothelioma. The tumor cells stained strongly for calretinin. The letter did not mention any asbestos exposure. The authors concluded that this case showed pleural mesothelioma could spread to unusual sites such as the breast, where it can look like a new breast cancer.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: case report (letter to the editor describing one patient)
• Who was studied: One 61-year-old female never-smoker with advanced epithelioid pleural mesothelioma. The authors are at the Clinical Cancer Centre "Giovanni Paolo II" in Bari, Italy. No dates are given.
• Main results:
  • After first-line therapy with cisplatin plus pemetrexed, the patient had relapsed disease in the pleura and, at the same time, a new mass in the left breast.
  • Mammography showed a 5-cm roundish thickened area with irregular margins, plus enlarged lymph nodes in the armpit.
  • Contrast-enhanced spectral mammography showed a large lesion in the left breast that was enhanced at its edges, with increased and uneven blood supply. These findings were absent in the right breast.
  • Ultrasound showed a 4.5-cm roundish hypoechoic lesion with irregular margins.
  • Ultrasound-guided biopsies of the left breast lesion and of the enlarged left axillary lymph node gave a diagnosis of malignant epithelial mesothelioma.
  • The tumor cells showed strong staining for calretinin.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that the case highlights that malignant pleural mesothelioma could spread to uncommon sites such as the breast. They also wrote that an accurate pathological diagnosis with an adequate panel of stains is crucial, because the two cancers are managed differently.

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Lung cancer, Mesothelioma.

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Metastasis, Pleural Mesothelioma.

Related studies

• Differential Diagnosis of Epithelioid Malignant Mesothelioma With Lung and Breast Pleural Metastasis: A Systematic Review Compared With a Standardized Panel of Antibodies-A New Proposal That May Influence Pathologic Practice — N. Le Stang, L. Burke, et al. (2020)
• Metastasis of cancer to cancer. A case of breast carcinoma metastasizing to a malignant mesothelioma — H.J. Andersen, L.G. Hansen, et al. (1986)
• Breast metastasis as the initial presentation of malignant pleural mesothelioma — L. Korša, A. Lukač, et al. (2020)
• Localized gastric mesothelioma with nodal metastasis-an exceptionally rare entity — M. Kazi, T. Vispute, et al. (2022)
• Synchronous Malignant Peritoneal Mesothelioma and Sigmoid Adenocarcinoma: a Challenging Clinical Entity — H. Alratrout, D.N. Boumarah, et al. (2023)
• Metastases to the breast: differential diagnosis from primary breast carcinoma — B. Vergier, M. Trojani, et al. (1991)

Browse more research in Journal of Thoracic Oncology, or return to medical research.