Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. May 26, 2022; 10(15): 4964-4970
Published online May 26, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i15.4964
Male metaplastic breast cancer with poor prognosis: A case report
Hyun Yul Kim, Seungju Lee, Dong-il Kim, Chang Shin Jung, Jee Yeon Kim, Kyung Jin Nam, Ki Seok Choo, Youn Joo Jung
Hyun Yul Kim, Seungju Lee, Dong-il Kim, Chang Shin Jung, Youn Joo Jung, Department of Surgery, Pusan National University Yangsan Hospital, Pusan National University School of Medicine, Gyeongnam 50612, South Korea
Jee Yeon Kim, Department of Pathology, Pusan National University Yangsan Hospital, Pusan National University School of Medicine, Gyeongnam 50612, South Korea
Kyung Jin Nam, Ki Seok Choo, Department of Radiology, Pusan National University Yangsan Hospital, Pusan National University School of Medicine, Gyeongnam 50612, South Korea
Author contributions: Kim HY and Jung YJ performed the surgery, reviewed the literature, and contributed to manuscript drafting; Lee SJ, Kim DI, Jung CS reviewed the literature and contributed to manuscript drafting; Kim JY analyzed and interpreted the pathologic specimen; Nam KJ and Choo KS analyzed and interpreted the imaging findings; all authors issued final approval for the version to be submitted.
Supported by the 2020 research grant from Pusan National University Yangsan Hospital, No. 2020-193.
Informed consent statement: The requirement for informed consent was exempted by the Institutional Review Board of the Pusan National University Yangsan Hospital (No. 05-2021-092).
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Youn Joo Jung, MD, Assistant Professor, Department of Surgery, Pusan National University Yangsan Hospital, Geumoro 20, Mulgeumeup, Yangsan, Gyeongnam 50612, South Korea. gsjyj@hanmail.net
Received: November 1, 2021
Peer-review started: November 1, 2021
First decision: December 2, 2021
Revised: December 15, 2021
Accepted: March 27, 2022
Article in press: March 27, 2022
Published online: May 26, 2022
Processing time: 204 Days and 2.5 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Metaplastic breast cancer (MBC) is a rare subtype of breast cancer. They constitute less than 1% of breast cancer cases and are much rarer in males. There are few reports of MBC because of its rarity. MBC, an aggressive type of cancer, is refractory to common treatment modalities of breast cancer and has a poor prognosis.

CASE SUMMARY

We report a case of MBC in a 78-year-old man. He visited our clinic with a palpable mass on the left breast with no masses in the axillary areas. He had previously undergone robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer, but there was no family history of malignancy. The breast mass was visible on ultrasonography, mammography, and magnetic resonance imaging, and chest computed tomography revealed a lung mass in the posterior basal segment of the right lower lobe. The patient was diagnosed with metaplastic carcinoma on core needle biopsy with lung metastasis. Total mastectomy with sentinel lymph node biopsy and video-assisted segmentectomy of the right lung was performed. However, multiple metastases appeared 3 mo after surgery in the brain, chest, and abdomen, and the patient died 5 mo after the initial diagnosis.

CONCLUSION

MBC is an aggressive and extremely rare breast cancer type. Further case reports are needed to determine the optimal treatment.

Keywords: Breast neoplasm; Male; Triple-negative breast cancer; Metaplastic breast cancer; Adjuvant treatment; Case report

Core Tip: Metaplastic breast cancer is a rare and aggressive form of breast cancer and is even rarer in males. Here, we present a case of a 78-year-old man with metaplastic breast cancer and lung metastasis. While he was treated with mastectomy and video-assisted segmentectomy, multiple metastases throughout the body appeared months later. More cases need to be accumulated to determine the most appropriate method of treatment.