Case of the season: osteosarcoma of the breast

Unusual Breast Neoplasm with Diagnostic and Management Challenges

With the growing awareness and availability of proper screening methods, detection of breast lump is increasing globally and is now a very sensitive issue for females. The treatment of these lumps ranges from lumpectomy to wide local excision to mastectomy; hence, a proper diagnosis is very important to prevent under- or overtreatment in patients. Breast lesions are the heterogeneous diseases encompassing several distinct entities with remarkably different characteristics. While the more common forms of breast cancers are well recognized and understood better, there are many important unusual lesions and malignancies that are less known and less appreciated and can be challenging to diagnose. In such cases, due to rarity of the disease and lack of adequate treatment protocol, managing the patients can be a challenging task for surgeons and oncologist as well. In this article, we have shared our institutional experience in unusual breast lesions with emphasis on diagnostic as well as management challenges faced.

Primary osteosarcoma of the breast: a case report

We report a rare case of primary osteosarcoma of the breast in a patient who presented a calcified fibroadenoma one year before the appearance of the malignant lesion. We describe the follow-up of the patient and the discovery of a similar osteosarcoma in the other breast one year later.

Primary breast osteosarcoma: a case report and review of literature

BACKGROUND

Primary soft tissue sarcomas are uncommon. We report a case of primary breast osteosarcoma which was treated successfully. This case report is combined with a literature review of this rare breast malignancy.

METHODS

Electronic literature search of databases: Pubmed/Medline, Ovid and EMBASE, in addition to the search engines Google/Google Scholar and Bing. The keywords used were breast osteosarcoma, soft tissue sarcoma and breast cancer. Searches were screened and those studies thought to be relevant had full text versions retrieved. The references to all retrieved texts were searched for further relevant studies.

CONCLUSION

Primary breast osteosarcoma is a rare breast malignancy that affects elderly patients. Diagnosis is often challenging and can be debatable due to its rarity, non-specific radiological findings and the complicated histopathological subtypes. Surgery is the treatment of choice.