Endometrial Metastasis from Ductal Breast Carcinoma: A Case Report with Literature Review

BACKGROUND There are few reports of breast cancer cases with uterine metastases; among them, myometrium is more frequently involved than endometrium. The majority of breast cancer metastases to endometrium are lobular type, and there have been only 5 reported cases of ductal type since 1984. Here, we describe a new case of invasive ductal carcinoma with metastases to endometrium and isolated presentation of abnormal uterine bleeding, in addition to reviewing the existing literature on other similar cases. CASE REPORT The patient was a 51-year-old Persian woman with no remarkable past medical or family history of cancer, who presented with a 6-month complaint of menorrhagia to our gynecology clinic. Diagnostic studies including trans-vaginal ultrasonography, pathological examination of endometrial curettage specimen, immunohistochemistry findings, and X-plane and magnetic resonance mammography, and breast core-needle biopsy revealed invasive ductal breast carcinoma as the origin of the endometrial metastasis. CONCLUSIONS Abnormal uterine bleeding in a premenopausal patient should alert clinicians to the possibility of secondary as well as primary neoplasms. It is necessary to differentiate a metastatic tumor from a primary one, since the treatment and prognosis are completely different.