J Breast Cancer.  2012 Sep;15(3):359-363. 10.4048/jbc.2012.15.3.359.

Occult Breast Cancers Manifesting as Axillary Lymph Node Metastasis in Men: A Two-Case Report

• Hur SM
• Cho DH
• Lee SK
• Choi MY
• Bae SY
• Koo MY
• Kim S
• Nam SJ
• Lee JE
• Yang JH

• KMID: 2286464
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4048/jbc.2012.15.3.359

Abstract

Occult breast cancer is a type of breast cancer without any symptoms on the breasts or any abnormalities upon radiologic examination such as mammography. In males, there are few cases of breast cancer, the rate of diagnosis of occult breast cancer is very low, and little is known about this disease. We experienced two cases of occult breast cancers manifesting as axillary lymph node metastasis in men. They had a palpable lesion on axillary area several years ago and had not seen a doctor about it. As such there was no abnormality on evaluations for cancer except for axillary lymph node showing signs of carcinoma (primary or metastatic) on biopsy and estrogen receptor-positive and progesterone receptor-positive on immunohistochemistry. The patients were diagnosed with occult breast cancer, and treatments were performed. Herein, we report the rare cases of occult breast cancers in men.

Keyword

Axilla; Breast neoplasms; Male; Neoplasm metastasis; Occult primary neoplasms

MeSH Terms

Axilla
Biopsy
Breast
Breast Neoplasms
Estrogens
Humans
Immunohistochemistry
Lymph Nodes
Male
Mammography
Neoplasm Metastasis
Neoplasms, Unknown Primary
Progesterone
Estrogens
Progesterone

Figure

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  Figure 1 Mammography (A), breast ultrasound (B), and magnetic resonance imaging scans (C) do not show abnormalities in the breast. Positron emission tomography (D) shows malignant lymphadenopathy in right axilla without other suspicious malignant lesion.

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  Figure 2 Case 1. Histopathologic examination of the lymph node specimen. It identify these as metastatic carcinoma in H&E stain (A, ×50; B, ×100).

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  Figure 3 Case 2. Histopathologic examination of the lymph node specimen (immunohistochemical staining, ×200). It shows positive expression of estrogen receptor (A), progesterone receptor (B), and BRST-2 (C) in immunohistochemistry stain.

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