title: [Critical analysis of the long-term management of a case of cancer of the breast].
abstract: We describe a case of gastric metastases from a lobular carcinoma of the breast in a 73-year-old woman who had undergone a left mastectomy with axillary dissection 15 years earlier. The initial diagnosis was diffuse-type gastric carcinoma as evaluated both by analysis of gastric biopsy findings and ultrasonographic endoscopy. The definitive diagnosis of metastatic breast cancer was confirmed after subtotal gastrectomy for a presumed primary gastric carcinoma and was obtained using a panel of specific immunohistochemical markers. The distinction between primary and secondary gastric malignancies in patients with a history of lobular breast carcinoma may not be merely an academy exercise, since the treatment and prognosis of the two situations are different.
authors.affiliation: UOC Chirurgia Generale A - Azienda Ospedaliera Sant'Andrea - II Facoltà di Medicina e Chirurgia Università degli Studi di Roma La Sapienza - Roma.
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: D'Amato
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pezzoli
authors.forename: Genoveffa
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Balducci
authors.forename: Tommaso
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bocchetti
authors.forename: Vincenzo
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Ziparo
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D018275:Carcinoma, Lobular / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000556:secondary* / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016609:Neoplasms, Second Primary / Q000175:diagnosis; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000556:secondary*; D013997:Time Factors