Scirrhous colonic metastasis from lobular carcinoma of breast.

A 68-year-old woman presented complaining of 2 months vague abdominal fullness and constipation. She had a history of surgery 5 years ago for invasive lobular carcinoma of the left breast. She had good appetite without any severe symptoms such as vomiting, diarrhea, or hematochezia. No abnormal subcutaneous lymph nodes were detected, and blood tests showed no abnormalities including serum tumor markers. Whole-body computed tomography and bone scintigraphy revealed no tumor recurrences. However, endoscopic findings demonstrated a smooth stenotic lesion with submucosal thickening in the transverse colon, but the colonic mucous membrane was grossly normal. The 3-cm-long stenotic lesion was confirmed by colon imaging using water-soluble contrast medium. A biopsy specimen revealed diffuse infiltration of noncohesive malignant cells with round, atypical nuclei from lamina propria to subserosa. Taken together with immunohistochemistry, a diagnosis of metastatic lobular carcinoma from the breast was made, and transverse segmentectomy was done. Colonic metastasis of breast cancer should be included as a differential diagnosis of any abdominal symptoms, even though mild, when patients have a present or previous history of breast cancer.