Squamous cell carcinoma of the hand metastasized to the breast: a unique case

Metastatic squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) to the breast is a very rare entity with a few cases reported in the literature, while the hand as an extra-mammary origin site for this type of malignancy has not been reported before. We describe a unique case of a woman with a SCC lesion excised from the right index finger that metastasized to her ipsilateral breast. A 68-year-old female patient presented with a small palpable lesion of the right breast and without any skin ulceration or malformation. Ultrasonography and computed tomography studies revealed a solitary metastatic lesion of the breast, without any multiple disease or lymphadenopathy diagnosed. Fine Needle Aspiration (FNA) cytology confirmed the correlation of the lesion with the primary site. The patient underwent further surgical and oncological management. The use of FNA cytology is important to distinguish a metastasis from primary breast cancer in order to avoid unnecessary conflicting treatments, even when the medical history is not typical or revealing. SCCs of the hand can give metastases to unusual sites such as the breast and must always be closely followed-up, even if they are successfully excised in healthy margins originally.