[Axillary Lymph Nodes Metastases from Occult Breast Cancer Recurrence at Ten Years after Resection--Case Report].

We encountered a case of axillary lymph nodes metastases from occult breast cancer recurrence at 10 years after resection. Ten years previously, a 71-year-old woman had undergone surgery (dermabrasion+full thickness skin graft+axillary lymph node dissection) for axillary lymph nodes metastases from occult breast cancer. After the operation, she had received chemotherapy and hormone therapy for 5 years. Then, in the recent 5 years, she had stopped attending our hospital. Ten years after the first operation, she came back to our hospital with a lump in her axillary region. She underwent resection for the subcutaneous mass and the axillary lymph nodes. The pathological diagnosis implied metastases from breast carcinoma. We checked up a hole her body. However, we could not detect the original lesion.