CASE REPORT article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Gastrointestinal Cancers: Gastric and Esophageal Cancers
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1596207
Breast cancer with gastric metastasis in invasive lobular carcinoma: a case report and literature review
Provisionally accepted
- Cancer Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Shandong Cancer Hospital and Institute, Jinan, Shandong Province, China
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Most early-stage breast cancer does not have the typical symptoms and signs. The common metastatic sites of breast cancer are bones, lymph nodes, soft tissues, lungs, brain, liver. Cases with the gastrointestinal (GI) tract as the first site of metastasis are relatively rare. Their clinical, imaging, and gastroscopic manifestations lack specificity, making them difficult to distinguish from primary gastric cancer. A 45-year-old woman presented with a week-long history of black stools, later diagnosed as gastric metastasis from breast cancer. The patient had undergone surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy 18 years prior for left invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) of the breast. Current symptoms included black stools, hiccups, fatigue, and decreased appetite, with no nausea, fever, or chills. Gastroscopy revealed a gastric ulcer, and biopsy confirmed poorly differentiated gastric adenocarcinoma. PET-CT indicated high metabolism in the stomach but no distant metastasis. A total gastrectomy with lymph node dissection revealed tumor invasion of the serosal membrane and nerves, confirming metastatic breast cancer. Postoperative treatment and follow-up showed no recurrence or metastasis, and the patient remained stable. Gastric metastasis from breast cancer is an uncommon condition, mostly associated with invasive lobular carcinoma. Accurate diagnosis requires careful consideration of the patient's medical history and a comprehensive approach utilizing clinical manifestations, imaging, endoscopy, histopathology, and immunohistochemistry (IHC) to minimize the risk of missed or incorrect diagnoses. Treatment remains centered on systemic therapies, including chemotherapy and endocrine therapy.
Keywords: breast cancer, Gastric metastasis, diagnosis, Treatment, prognosis
Received: 19 Mar 2025; Accepted: 30 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu, Han, Hu, Wang, Wang, Zhang and Chai. 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: Jie Chai, Cancer Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Shandong Cancer Hospital and Institute, Jinan, Shandong Province, China
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