Intracystic papillary carcinoma of the breast in a 21-year old premenopausal Nigerian woman: a case report

Abstract

We report the case of a 21-year-old Nigerian woman who presented to us with features of intracystic papillary carcinoma, a rare form of breast cancer usually seen in postmenopausal women in their sixth to eighth decades of life. To the best of our knowledge, there has been only one other case report of this lesion occurring in women in their second decade of life. Physical examination showed a well-defined mass, 54 mm in diameter, in the upper proximal quadrant of the right breast close to the areola, histologically composed of monotypic epithelial cells disposed in solid, cystic, and papillary patterns. A diagnosis of intracystic papillary carcinoma was made because of the presence of intracystic arborization of the fibrovascular stroma, a monotonous cell population, the presence of mitoses, and the lack of myoepithelial cells determined by immunohistochemistry using calponin and p63 stains. Estrogen receptor status was positive while progesterone status and HER-2-neu receptor status were negative. The patient has survived for 12 months without any sign of recurrence after the last surgical resection of the tumor.

Encapsulated papillary carcinoma of the breast: An institutional case series and literature review

“…Our patients are similar to those in reported series, with a median age of 65 years old 1,3 . There are very few cases reported in the literature of EPCs occurring in women younger than 40 years old 11,12 . Our series reports a large number of patients, despite its rarity, and demonstrate the difficulty in diagnosing EPC on pre‐operative imaging and biopsies.…”

“…These features were seen in our patients too. The absence of distinctive malignant features predisposes to radiological under diagnosis 12 . In our series, most of the EPCs presented as a complex cystic mass with a hypervascular intracystic solid component on sonography which should raise the possibility of EPC 16 .…”

“…1,3 There are very few cases reported in the literature of EPCs occurring in women younger than 40 years old. 11,12 Our series reports a large number of patients, despite its rarity, and demonstrate the difficulty in diagnosing EPC on pre-operative imaging and biopsies. To our knowledge, our series is the largest series in Asian population.…”