Secretory carcinoma of the breast. Case report and review of the literature.

We report an elderly case of an indolent breast tumor in a 66-year-old woman. The patient presented with a locally advanced mass in the right breast that was present for 13 years, accompanied by bleeding and ulceration since the last 5 years. She had a modified radical mastectomy with axillary dissection. She was found to have secretory carcinoma with a tumor size of 8 x 4 x 4 cm in diameter. Two out of the 22 removed lymph nodes were involved. The secretory material stained positive with lactalbumin, as well as showed positivity with PAS. The patient received six cycles of adjuvant chemotherapy followed by chest wall irradiation. She is disease free with a follow-up period of 24 months. Preoperative chemotherapy should be primarily replaced by curative surgery in such indolent cancers, despite locally advanced disease. Copyright (c) 2005 S. Karger AG, Basel.