Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2021 Nov 30;21(1):530.
doi: 10.1186/s12887-021-03002-6.

Primary breast lymphoma of childhood: a case report and review of literature

Affiliations
Review

Primary breast lymphoma of childhood: a case report and review of literature

Giulia A Restivo et al. BMC Pediatr. .

Abstract

Background: Primary breast lymphoma (PBL) is an extremely rare neoplasm in children; by definition, it manifests in the breast without evidence of lymphoma elsewhere, except ipsilateral axillary nodes.

Case presentation: We report a case of a 15-year-old girl diagnosed with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) of the right breast: the patient received chemotherapy and rituximab, achieving complete remission. A literature review revealed other 11 cases of pediatric PBL; it mainly affects female adolescents and can involve right and left breast equally. Different histologic subtypes have been described, arising from both B-cell and T-cell. Therapeutic approaches were very different, from chemotherapy to local treatment with surgery and/or radiotherapy.

Conclusions: Our case is the first in which rituximab was administered, suggesting to be a promising therapy in B-cell PBL, as already demonstrated in pediatric B-cell lymphoma from other sites. Further investigations are needed to identify prognostic factors and establish the most effective treatment.

Keywords: Children; Primary breast lymphoma; rituximab.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Hematoxylin-eosin staining
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
CD20 staining
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Whole body PET-CT scan: pre- (A) and post- (B) treatment

References

    1. Murphy JJ, Morzaria S, Gow KW, Magee JF. Breast cancer in a 6-year-old child. J Pediatr Surg. 2000;35(5):765–7. doi: 10.1053/jpsu.2000.6064. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Mance M, Smuđ-Orehovec S, Vrbanović-Mijatović V, Mijatović D. Primary alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma of the breast in a 17-year-old girl. J Oncol Pract. 2020;16(2):93–95. doi: 10.1200/JOP.19.00476. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Wiseman C, Liao KT. Primary lymphoma of the breast. Cancer. 1972;29:1705–1712. doi: 10.1002/1097-0142(197206)29:6<1705::AID-CNCR2820290640>3.0.CO;2-I. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Cheah CY, Campbell BA, Seymour JF. Primary breast lymphoma. Cancer Treat Rev. 2014;40(8):900–908. doi: 10.1016/j.ctrv.2014.05.010. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Murphy SB. Classification, staging and end results of treatment of childhood non-Hodgkin lymphomas: dissimilarities from lymphomas in adults. Semin Oncol. 1980;7:332–339. - PubMed

MeSH terms