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Rare disease
CASE REPORT
Rare breast metastasis from adenoid cystic carcinoma of the submandibular gland
  1. Kate Buretta Krucoff1,
  2. Ronnie Labib Shammas1,
  3. Maggie Stoecker2,
  4. Lisa Anne Tolnitch1
  1. 1Department of Surgery, Duke University Hospital, Durham, North Carolina, USA
  2. 2Department of Pathology, Duke Raleigh Hospital, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
  1. Correspondence to Dr Kate Buretta Krucoff, kate.buretta{at}duke.edu

Summary

Adenoid cystic carcinomas (ACCs) are rare malignant neoplasms of exocrine glands, most commonly found in salivary glands. This report describes a 67-year-old woman with metastatic ACC to the breast, only the third reported case of its kind. The salivary gland ACC was first diagnosed 5 years prior. Routine mammogram identified a Breast Imaging and Reporting Systems (BIRADS) 4 lesion. Core breast biopsy demonstrated findings consistent with metastatic ACC to the breast. The patient ultimately underwent local excision but suffered a recurrence of disease less than 2 months later despite chemotherapy. She passed away 15 months after excision due to complications associated with a small bowel obstruction and decompensated respiratory status from pulmonary metastases. While metastatic salivary ACC to the breast is rare, it is important to be able to distinguish metastatic salivary ACC to the breast from primary ACC of the breast as the treatment considerations for the two disease processes differ significantly.

  • cancer intervention
  • breast cancer
  • head and neck cancer
  • radiotherapy
  • palliative procedures

https://doi.org/10.1136/bcr-2017-223345

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors KJB provided surgical care to the patient, collected the data, prepared and edited the manuscript and obtained consent for patient information. She is accountable for the article and ensures that all questions regarding the accuracy or integrity of the article are investigated and resolved and gives final approval of the version to be published. RLS was responsible for drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content. MS and LAT were responsible for conception and design, acquisition of data or analysis and interpretation of data and drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent Next of kin consent obtained.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.