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Case Reports
. 2023 Feb 9;30(2):2187-2193.
doi: 10.3390/curroncol30020169.

A Case of Life-Threatening Bleeding Due to a Locally Advanced Breast Carcinoma Successfully Treated with Transcatheter Arterial Embolization

Giulia Atzori  1 , Raquel Diaz  1 , Marco Gipponi  1 , Chiara Cornacchia  1 , Federica Murelli  1   2 , Francesca Depaoli  1 , Marco Sparavigna  1 , Valentina Barbero  3 , Francesco Petrocelli  4 , Francesca Pitto  5 , Simonetta Franchelli  1 , Daniele Friedman  1   2 , Piero Fregatti  1   2
Affiliations
Case Reports

A Case of Life-Threatening Bleeding Due to a Locally Advanced Breast Carcinoma Successfully Treated with Transcatheter Arterial Embolization

Giulia Atzori et al. Curr Oncol. .

Abstract

Locally advanced breast cancer (LABC) may rarely present with acute severe bleeding. A case report dealing with transcatheter arterial embolization to control acute bleeding in a patient with a voluminous ulcerated breast mass is described. Our findings confirm that the endovascular approach is effective in such patients in order to stabilize the patient whenever conventional treatments have failed or bleeding may be life-threatening.

Keywords: advanced breast cancer; bleeding; embolization.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(a,b). Internal mammary artery in phase pre- (a) and post- (b) embolization. Figure 1a shows the arterial branches of the internal mammary artery responsible for breast bleeding; Figure 1b shows the disappearance of arterial branches after successful selective embolization procedure.
Figure 2
Figure 2
(a) Local conditions to admission into the Emergency Department; (b) Local conditions post-NAC: NAC resulted in a modest reduction in the size of the neoplasm (c) Local conditions post-surgery: surgery consisted of excision of the tumor, application of VAC therapy, and subsequent closure of the wall defect with a skin graft from the leg.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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