Bolzacchini E, Nigro O, Inversini D, Giordano M, Maconi G. Intestinal metastasis from breast cancer: Presentation, treatment and survival from a systematic literature review.
World J Clin Oncol 2021;
12:382-392. [PMID:
34131569 PMCID:
PMC8173325 DOI:
10.5306/wjco.v12.i5.382]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/05/2021] [Revised: 01/23/2021] [Accepted: 04/14/2021] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Intestinal metastases from breast cancer (BC) arerare; available data depend mainly on case reports and case series.
AIM
To conduct a review of the literature regarding presentation, diagnosis, treatment and survival of patients with intestinal metastasis from BC.
METHODS
We identified all articles that described patients with intestinal metastasis (from duodenum to anum) from BC using MEDLINE (1975 to 2020) and EMBASE (1975 to 2020) electronic databases.
RESULTS
We found 96 cases of intestinal metastasis of BC. Metastasization involved large bowel (cecum, colon, sigmoid, rectum) (51%), small bowel (duodenum, jejunum, ileum) (49%), and anum (< 1%). Median age of patients was 61-years. The most frequent histology was infiltrating lobular carcinoma followed by infiltrating ductal carcinoma. In more than half of patients, the diagnosis was made after the diagnosis of BC (median: 7.2 years) and in many cases of emergency, for bowel obstruction, bleeding or perforation. Diagnosis was achieved through endoscopy, radiological examination or both. In most of the cases, patients underwent surgery with or without systemic therapies. Survival of patients included in this review was available in less than 50% of patients and showed an overall median of 12 mo since diagnosis of the intestinal metastasis.
CONCLUSION
Although, intestinal metastases of BC are considered a rare condition, clinicians should consider the possibility of intestinal involvement in case of abdominal symptoms even in acute setting and many years after the diagnosis of BC, especially in patients with a histology of lobular carcinoma.
Collapse