CASE REPORT article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Breast Cancer
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1437887
This article is part of the Research TopicMultidisciplinary and Personalized Approach in the Treatment of Advanced Breast CancerView all 22 articles
Metaplastic Breast Carcinoma with Osseous and Chondrodifferentiation in Liver Metastasis: a Rare Case and Review of Literature
Provisionally accepted
- 1Hubei University of Medicine, Shiyan, China
- 2Taihe Hospital, Hubei University of Medicine, Shiyan, Hubei Province, China
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Background: Metaplastic carcinoma of the breast with mesenchymal differentiation (MCMD) is a type of metaplastic breast carcinoma (MpBC) which is very rare and aggressive. The present case provides valuable information for clinicians on this MpBC. Case Presentation: A 41-year-old female visited our hospital for a palpable painless mass in the left breast. Core needle biopsy (CNB) was performed, and the pathological result was infiltrating ductal carcinoma. Epirubicin (100mg/m2) + cyclophosphnide (600mg/m2) for 4 cycles were given. Color Doppler ultrasound examination indicated no obvious change about the size in the left breast mass. We changed to paclitaxel (175mg/m2) for two cycles. Re-examination on April 26, 2018 with color Doppler ultrasound indicated the tumor diameter increased to 8.39* 8.07* 6.19cm. Radical resection of the left breast carcinoma was performed on June 04, 2018. Postoperative pathological results showed the left breast tumor was composed of carcinoma and sarcoma components, without nerves and vascular invasion. Immunohistochemistry: ER: (-), PR: (-), HER-2: (-), CK5/6 (+), CK7: (+), E-cadherin (+), Ki67: 40% (+), P120: (+), P53 diffuse +, P63: (+), S100 partially positive, GATA-3: (+). Four cycles of Vinorelbine (25mg/m2) + Cisplatin (40mg/m2) were performed after operation. Enhanced CT indicated a 6.0*4.6cm mass in the liver on January 01, 2019 through regular review. And liver lobectomy confirmed the metastasis was originated from sarcoma components, accompanied with bone and cartilage differentiation. Immunohistochemistry results indicated: ER (-), PR (-), GATA-3 (-), CD34 (+), P63 (-), CK8 (-), P40: (-), vimentin:(+). The patient received oral anlotinib 12 mg once a day, with 2 weeks on/1 week off for 8 cycles. The patient still survived until the follow-up day without any sign of recurrence. Conclusion: This case indicated that CNB might not make a precise diagnosis for MCMD. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy with epirubicin, cyclophosphnide or paclitaxel for MCMD might be invalid for the no sensitivity to drug. In addition, regular postoperative follow-up played important roles in early detecting remote metastasis and timely surgical excision of the single metastatic lesion in the liver might acquire long time progression free survival (PFS).
Keywords: breast oncology, Metaplastic carcinoma, Neoadjuvant chemotherapy, Mastectomy, thoracic oncology
Received: 24 May 2024; Accepted: 09 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ou, Li, Zhang, Long, Zhou and Zhao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Qin Ou, Hubei University of Medicine, Shiyan, China
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