Metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma presenting as an isolated breast mass: A diagnostic pitfall and a review of literature.

Metastases to breast are much rarer than primary breast tumors. We now present a case of 45-year-old female, who presented with an isolated breast mass. A positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) done revealed hypermetabolic right breast nodules, soft tissue deposits, and multiple nodal involvement. The biopsy from the breast and axillary lymph node showed dense lymphoid infiltrate and was interpreted initially as granulomatous inflammation. However, the lumps were hard and suspicious for primary breast cancer, so an immunohistochemistry for cytokeratin was performed which highlighted the epithelial cell clusters masked within the inflammatory infiltrate and the diagnosis of undifferentiated carcinoma, lymphoepithelioma-like was made. After the diagnosis was made, it was realized that the patient had been treated earlier for a nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). The in situ hybridization (ISH) test for Epstein-Barr virus-encoded RNA ISH was positive in the tumor cells, and hence, a diagnosis of metastatic NPC was finally made. The patient subsequently developed extensive nodal, skeletal, and soft tissue metastatic disease but was alive till September 2015. Although extremely rare, metastatic NPC can occur in the breast and the above case highlights that it mimics an inflammatory lesion. This case highlights the importance of the multidisciplinary approach for appropriate tumor diagnosis and patient management.

Is There a Limitation of RECIST Criteria in Prediction of Pathological Response, in Head and Neck Cancers, to Postinduction Chemotherapy?

This study studied the coorelation between radiological response to induction chemotherapy and acheivement of pCR or near pCR. It was a retrospective analysis in which all patients who received NACT from 2008 till april 2012 were subjected to inclusion criteria. Coorelation analysis was performed between CR + PR and acheivement of pCR or near pCR. Twenty four patients were identified.The primary site of tumor was oral cavity in 19 patients (79.2%), maxilla in 2 patients (4.2%), laryngopharynx in 2 patients (4.2%) and oropharynx in 1 patient (4.2%). The clinical stage was stage IVA in 16 patients ( 66.7%) and IVB in 8 patients (33.3%). The overall response rates ie a combination of CR and PR was seen in 11patients (45.8%). The pCR was seen in 15 patients (62.5%) and rest had near pCR. There was no linear coorelation between radiological size decrement and tumor response. On coorelation analysis the spearman correlation coefficent was -0.039 (P = 0.857). This suggest that presently used radiological response criterias for response assesment in head and neck cancers severly limit our ability to identify patients who would have pCR or near pCR.