Primary breast lymphoma in the right breast during treatment for left breast cancer.
BACKGROUND
Primary breast lymphoma is a rare condition, and distinguishing it from breast cancer is important because their treatments differ radically. Moreover, a recent report showed that mastectomy offered no benefit in the treatment of primary breast lymphoma.


METHODS
A 59-year-old woman was treated with adjuvant chemotherapy and local radiation after surgery for left breast cancer. She presented with a rapidly growing mass in the right breast at 20 months after surgery. Mammography and computed tomography revealed a massive tumour. She was diagnosed with primary breast lymphoma by aspiration cytology, and surgery was performed. Histopathological and immunohistochemical findings confirmed a diffuse large B-cell type primary breast lymphoma.


CONCLUSIONS
In this case, the lymphoma exhibited rapid growth despite chemotherapy for a malignancy in the contralateral breast. The patient had developed bronchiolitis obliterans organizing pneumonia due to radiation. Therefore, surgical treatment of the lymphoma was selected.
Department of Surgery, Oita Red Cross Hospital, Oita, Japan. ngkkd637@yahoo.co.jp.
Shigeyuki
S
Nagata
Ataru
A
Nishimura
Yukio
Y
Iwashita
Tadahiko
T
Kinoshita
Kengo
K
Fukuzawa
Hideya
H
Tashiro
Kenzo
K
Wakasugi