Background: Breast cancer is heterogeneous and insidious in pathology and presentation by virtue of the various subtypes with differing cellular properties and natural history. While our robust screening guidelines and modalities are effective at diagnosing breast cancer early, we must always be vigilant for any systemic symptoms in other clinical contexts that herald breast cancer. This exhibit aims to review a series of cases of metastatic breast cancer that presented originally as metastasis from an unknown primary source to typify how metastatic breast cancer can present and to remind us to always be mindful of breast cancer in the context of metastatic disease.
Learning Objectives: This exhibit will review a series of cases of metastatic breast cancer that originally presented as metastatic disease of unknown origin. Clinical courses will be presented with initial workup imaging to display the common patterns of metastatic breast cancer. Follow-up mammograms and ultrasound images will then be presented to better illustrate the presence of breast cancer. Each case will then be correlated with biopsy results to solidify the diagnosis. This exhibit will help viewers to consider breast cancer in the presence of metastatic disease from an unknown primary.
Abstract Content/Results: Metastatic breast cancer should always be considered in instances of metastatic disease from an unknown primary. As such, workup and management decisions can be made more efficiently by clinicians and interpreting radiologists when mindful of this. Thus, this exhibit will present cases of metastatic breast cancer that originally presented as metastatic disease from unknown primary to edify this principle by presenting the clinical vignette on presentation, initial radiological workup, and eventual mammography, ultrasound images, and pathology results. This exhibit may help radiologists and clinicians make diagnosis, workup, and management decisions more efficiently and accurately.
Conclusion: Recognizing that the differential diagnosis for metastatic disease of unknown origin includes metastatic breast cancer will make diagnosis and workup and management decisions more precise and efficient for radiologists and clinician alike. This exhibit will present cases of metastatic disease of unknown origin that eventually were diagnosed as metastatic breast cancer to demonstrate this relationship for viewers in the hopes that it can help guide and facilitate decision making to the benefit of patients.
