title: Squamous cell carcinoma of the hand metastasized to the breast: a unique case.
abstract: Metastatic squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) to the breast is a very rare entity with a few cases reported in the literature, while the hand as an extra-mammary origin site for this type of malignancy has not been reported before. We describe a unique case of a woman with a SCC lesion excised from the right index finger that metastasized to her ipsilateral breast. A 68-year-old female patient presented with a small palpable lesion of the right breast and without any skin ulceration or malformation. Ultrasonography and computed tomography studies revealed a solitary metastatic lesion of the breast, without any multiple disease or lymphadenopathy diagnosed. Fine Needle Aspiration (FNA) cytology confirmed the correlation of the lesion with the primary site. The patient underwent further surgical and oncological management. The use of FNA cytology is important to distinguish a metastasis from primary breast cancer in order to avoid unnecessary conflicting treatments, even when the medical history is not typical or revealing. SCCs of the hand can give metastases to unusual sites such as the breast and must always be closely followed-up, even if they are successfully excised in healthy margins originally.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, General Hospital of Chalkis, Chalkis, Evia, Greece.
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Galyfos
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, General Hospital of Chalkis, Chalkis, Evia, Greece.
authors.forename: Georgios
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Karantzikos
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, University of Athens Medical School, Areteion University Hospital, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Argiri
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sianou
authors.affiliation: Department of Cytology, General Hospital of Chalkis, Chalkis, Evia, Greece.
authors.forename: Dionisia
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Karatzia
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, General Hospital of Chalkis, Chalkis, Evia, Greece.
authors.forename: Marios
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Christakis
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, General Hospital of Chalkis, Chalkis, Evia, Greece.
authors.forename: Emmanuel
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Deligiannis
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D044963:Biopsy, Fine-Needle; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000556:secondary*; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000473:pathology / Q000556:secondary*; D005260:Female; D006225:Hand / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*
keywords: Breast metastasis; fine needle cytology; malpighian cells; primary squamous cell carcinoma