Cutaneous metastasis from breast carcinoma: a brief report of a rare variant and proposed morphological classification

ABSTRACT

Breast carcinoma is the second commonest cancer in women after non-melanoma skin cancers and, excluding melanoma, the most common tumor to metastasize to the skin in women. Cutaneous metastasis from breast cancer has varied presentations but there is no well-established classification which includes them all. We report a 69 year-old lady with advanced primary ductal carcinoma of right breast [Ct[4]cN[1]cM[0]] who presented five months after radical mastectomy with very extensive cutaneous metastases in absence of distant spread. Skin involvement was in the form of nodules and purpuric papulo-vesicles on a background of erythema which clinically mimicked lymphatic malformation. We also propose a morphological classification of the cutaneous metastasis from breast cancer