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Case Reports
. 2013 Feb 4:2013:bcr2012008239.
doi: 10.1136/bcr-2012-008239.

An unusual breast lump: osseous metaplasia

Meera Joshi  1 , Dionysios D Remoundos, Farid Ahmed, Giles Cunnick, Gabrielle Rees
Affiliations
Case Reports

An unusual breast lump: osseous metaplasia

Meera Joshi et al. BMJ Case Rep. .

Abstract

We present a rare case of osseous metaplasia in the breast with no other associated breast pathology. A 46-year-old HIV-positive lady presented to the breast clinic with new onset intermittent left-sided mastalgia. Clinical examination revealed an indeterminate mass in the left breast with palpable left axillary lymphadenopathy. Mammography and ultrasonography were suggestive of a possible malignancy, with the latter also detecting the presence of abnormal nodes in the axilla. An ultrasound-guided core biopsy of the breast lesion showed only hyalinised normal breast tissue on two occasions. Owing to the diagnostic uncertainty, the patient underwent a wire-guided excision biopsy of the breast lesion, with the final histology demonstrating bone matrix deposition with viable osteocytes within lacunae and associated osteoclasts with spindle cells, consistent with osseous metaplasia. A core biopsy of the axillary lymph nodes was normal. The patient was therefore reassured and discharged from the clinic.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Focal osseous metaplasia with bone matrix deposition and viable osteocytes within lacunae.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Benign spindle cell lesion, comprising bland spindle cells with small nucleoli and a collagenous background.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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