DOI: 10.36347/sjmcr.2013.v01i03.005

Pages: 69-71

Gastrointestinal metastases from breast cancer are rare. Here we report a rare case of bowel obstruction caused by ileum metastases from breast cancer and describe its relevance to histological origin and clinical practice. The clinical course and histopathology of the case are reviewed and compared with reports of similar cases in the literature. A 67 year-old female patient with signs and symptoms of intermittent bowel obstruction for the last 20 days was admitted to the General Surgery Clinic of Istanbul Training and Research Hospital. Her medical history included infiltrating lobular breast cancer treated with left radical mastectomy 4 years before the current presentation. She came to our emergency department because of symptoms of bowel obstruction. Exploratory laparotomy revealed anilealobstruction.1 meter distally from Treitz ligament, the jejunum and ileum segments were adherent to abdomen wall, proximal jejunum segment was highly dilated. This adhesion was caused by about a tumor of 3cm in diameter located at the distal part of ileum. After the resection of the tumor and adherents, ileostomy and jejunostomy was performed. Histological examination revealed metastases from invasive lobular carcinoma. She was discharged uneventful at the 9th postoperative day after the operation. The preoperative diagnosis of the cause of small bowel obstruction is difficult in adults. Invasive lobular breast cancer significantly metastasizes more often than invasive ductal cancer to the gastrointestinal tract..Physicians should be aware of these unusual gastrointestinal metastatic patterns of breast cancer in order to permit early diagnosis of gastrointestinal metastases and improve treatment planning.