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Case Reports
. 2021 Jul 31;15(1):412.
doi: 10.1186/s13256-021-02998-w.

Primary ectopic axillary breast cancer: a case series

S Sghaier  1 , M GHalleb  2 , I Marghli  2 , A Bouida  2 , J Ben Hassouna  2 , R Chargui  2 , K Rahal  2
Affiliations
Case Reports

Primary ectopic axillary breast cancer: a case series

S Sghaier et al. J Med Case Rep. .

Abstract

Introduction: Ectopic breast tissue is present in 2-6% of women. Ectopic breast cancer represents an uncommon disease accounting for about 0.3% of all breast neoplasms, limiting the available evidence. Thus, we aim to report long-term outcomes in five cases treated at our institution.

Case series: Our Tunisian patients' median age was 48 years (33-60 years), and the median follow-up was 8 years (4-10 years). The ectopic breast tissue was located four times in the right axilla. The median tumor size was 25 mm (15-55 mm). Four of the patients underwent a wide local excision and axillary lymph node dissection. Three of those women had positive lymph nodes; thus, they received adjuvant chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and hormone therapy. The patient with a negative lymph node (case 5) had adjuvant radiation therapy and hormonal therapy. One of the patients (case 1) had a positive supraclavicular lymph node and received radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and hormonal therapy. The latter developed a locoregional relapse after 4 years and was treated with mastectomy and chemotherapy. One patient (case 4) had a distant metastasis after 2 years of follow-up and received chemotherapy. The three other patients were free of relapse during their follow-up period.

Conclusion: Primary axillary breast carcinoma is a rare entity. Despite the paucity of literature, our findings and authors' recommendations suggest that local excision can be performed safely with promising outcomes in this subset of patients.

Keywords: Carcinoma; Chemotherapy; Ectopic breast tissue; Hormonotherapy; Radiotherapy; Surgery.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest, and that this work was done with all due respect to the code of ethics under the supervision of the medical and ethics committee of the Salah Azaiez Institute.

None.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Mammography revealing an ectopic breast ill-defined opacity. A thoracic–abdominal–pelvic scan did not detect any distant metastasis. We staged the tumor as T2N1M0 according to the TNM system
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Surgical excision of the ectopic gland containing a tumor nodule of 15 mm
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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