Primary ectopic breast carcinoma: a case report.

BACKGROUND: Ectopic breast tissue is present in 2-6% of women. Ectopic mammary tissue can experience physiological changes and the same pathological processes as the eutopic breast. Ectopic breast cancer represents an uncommon condition accounting for 0.3% of all breast neoplasms, and it is most frequently located in the axilla. CASE REPORT: We report a rare case of a 57-year-old Tunisian woman who presented with a left-sided axillary mass evolving for about 1 month. The axillary ectopic breast tissue containing the mass was excised with axillary dissection. Pathology revealed a medullary multifocal carcinoma and metastasis was detected in two lymph nodes. She had local radiotherapy after six cycles of chemotherapy. She received herceptin therapy and hormonotherapy. After a 2-year follow-up, no evidence of local recurrence or distant metastases have been identified. CONCLUSION: Ectopic breast carcinoma is a rare entity that should be the first diagnosis to be considered if an axillary lump is present in ectopic breast tissue. No particular guidelines on diagnosis and treatment are available. Therefore, physicians should be aware of this condition to avoid treatment delays. Once diagnosed, careful patient follow-up is essential because of the ambiguous natural history of this rare entity.

Advanced small bowel adenocarcinoma: Molecular characteristics and therapeutic perspectives.

Small bowel cancer represents less than 5% of all gastrointestinal cancers, while small bowel adenocarcinoma (SBA) accounts for about one third of all cancers of the small bowel. Although SBA frequently appears sporadically, some diseases are risk factors, such as Crohn's disease and some genetic predispositions to cancer. Progress in the identification of molecular alterations suggests some similarities in carcinogenesis between SBA and colorectal cancer. Evidence levels for the treatment and prognosis of these tumors are insufficient because of the scarcity of this disease and the absence of randomized trials. Chemotherapy based on fluoropyrimidine plus a platinum salt appears to be the most effective treatment regimen in non-randomized prospective trials for advanced SBA. Targeted therapy, against the angiogenic pathway or the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) pathway, for example, is not yet established, but seems promising given the over-expression of vascular epithelial growth factor (VEGF)-A or EGFR observed in SBA. Phase I and II studies are currently evaluating the safety and efficacy of these targeted therapies in SBA treatment. The low incidence of SBA should promote the development of international collaborations to improve our knowledge of the biological mechanisms underlying these tumors and to set up therapeutic trials.