Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Oct 26, 2019; 7(20): 3347-3352
Published online Oct 26, 2019. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v7.i20.3347
Ureter - an unusual site of breast cancer metastasis: A case report
Zhong-Han Zhou, Li-Jiang Sun, Gui-Ming Zhang
Zhong-Han Zhou, Li-Jiang Sun, Gui-Ming Zhang, Department of Urology, The Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, Qingdao 266003, Shandong Province, China
Author contributions: Zhou ZH and Zhang GM conceived of the concept and participated in drafting the manuscript; Sun LJ and Zhang GM reviewed the pathological slides and revised the manuscript; Zhang GM performed the surgery, analyzed the radiologic imaging data, supervised the project, and revised the manuscript; all the authors read and approved the final version and agreed to publish the manuscript.
Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81502195 and No. 81672512.
Informed consent statement: Written informed consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this report and the accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Gui-Ming Zhang, MD, PhD, Doctor, Department of Urology, The Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, No. 16, Jiangsu Road, Qingdao 266003, Shandong Province, China. zhangguiming9@126.com
Telephone: +86-532-82913056 Fax: +86-532-82911999
Received: June 21, 2019
Peer-review started: June 23, 2019
First decision: July 31, 2019
Revised: August 31, 2019
Accepted: September 11, 2019
Article in press: September 11, 2019
Published online: October 26, 2019
Processing time: 127 Days and 13.6 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Breast cancer (BCa) is one of the most common malignancies in women; however, ureteral metastasis of BCa has rarely been reported in the literature.

CASE SUMMARY

A 55-year-old Chinese woman with an 8-year history of BCa presented with lower back pain that had persisted for 3 mo. The patient underwent bilateral modified radical mastectomy and subclavian and submandibular clearance, and received systemic treatment, including chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and targeted therapy during treatment. Ureteroscopy did not acquire a satisfactory biopsy. Thus, laparoscopic nephroureterectomy was performed, and ureteral metastases of BCa were pathologically confirmed. As suggested by her oncologist, she continued to receive apatinib. Postoperative 3-mo follow-up indicated further progression of axillary lymph node metastases.

CONCLUSION

Ureteral metastasis of BCa shows nonspecific symptoms. Diagnosing ureter metastasis from BCa can be established by histopathology and immunohistochemistry.

Keywords: Breast cancer; Ureter metastasis; Immunohistochemistry; Chemotherapy; Case report

Core tip: Ureteral metastasis from non-urinary system tumors, such as breast cancer (BCa), has rarely been reported. Herein, we present a case of pathologically confirmed ureteral metastases of BCa.