Breast vasculitis presenting as a tumor-like lesion. A case report.

ABSTRACT

Breast vasculitis presenting as a tumor-like lesion is rare. The differential diagnosis in these cases can be extremely difficult but is very important for treatment and follow-up. We report the case of a 80-year-old woman who was admitted to our service with a lesion resembling an inflammatory carcinoma of the breast. We discuss the pathological and clinical characteristics, the presentation, assessment and treatment of this case and its resolution. Few reports in the literature have addressed the possible occurrence of systemic vasculitis mimicking cancerous lesions. The most common location of such lesions was shown to be the breast in one review. Although rare, such manifestations can be effectively recognized and treated.