We found a match
Your institution may have rights to this item. Sign in to continue.
- Title
Long overdue presentation for a mammary malignancy: real-life medicine experience.
- Authors
Sima, Oana-Claudia; Costăchescu, Mihai; Carsote, Mara; Nistor, Claudiu; Petca, Aida; Dumitraşcu, Mihai-Cristian; Petca, Răzvan-Cosmin; Şandru, Florica
- Abstract
Various clinical presentations have been reported in the field of breast cancer. On one hand, the malignancy may be completely asymptomatic, thus the diagnosis is delayed, and on the other hand, the patient's decision to delay the presentation despite clinical evidence is strictly correlated to personal choice and opinion. Moreover, a delayed presentation and fear of medical checkup were registered during the COVID-19 pandemic regardless of oncologic profile. We present such a dramatic case of a lady in her 60s admitted for a very impressive clinical picture of mammary area showing breast asymmetry, with a large, solid and immobile mass in the lower outer quadrant of the left breast of 5 cm, accompanied by changes of the overlying skin such as thickening ("orange peel" aspect), large erythematous patches, and crusted lesions. Voluminous lymphadenopathies were detected at palpation in the left axilla, left supraclavicular region, and left laterocervical region. The computed tomography of the thorax revealed voluminous infiltrative masses, spiculated, confluent, of 5 by 8 cm in the left breast, surrounded by intense areas of edema and fibrosis that extended to cervical, nuchal and anterior, lateral and posterior thorax level (suggestive for infected cellulitis). The delayed presentation in case of a fulminant malignancy such as mammary cancer complicated with local and distance metastases and local cellulitis represents a dramatic point in real-life medicine that, despite medical progress, cannot surpass one individual's decision.
- Subjects
DELAYED diagnosis; COVID-19 pandemic; SYMPTOMS; ORANGE peel; COMPUTED tomography
- Publication
Obstetrică şi Ginecologie, 2024, Vol 72, Issue 1, p41
- ISSN
1220-5532
- Publication type
Case Study