Introduction: Breast cancer arising from benign fibroadenoma (FA) is rare. The histological type of the former was either carcinoma in situ or early-stage invasive breast carcinoma with hormone receptor positive/HER2 (human epidermal growth factor receptor-2)-negative phenotype. Meanwhile, advanced breast cancer of triple negative (TN) phenotype such as our case is extremely uncommon and clinically challenging.
Presentation of case: We experienced a case of a 53-year-old woman that had invasive ductal carcinoma of TN phenotype in FA with multiple lymph node metastases. After receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC), she underwent breast mastectomy and axillary dissection. The pathological examination on postoperative specimens revealed the dense fibrous stroma in the FA without any residual viable tumor cells and was considered as pathological complete response (pCR).
Discussion: This is the first report presenting a case of NAC treatment for invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) in FA. Furthermore, the patient achieved pCR even if IDC was located within FA. Diagnosing breast cancer in FA may be challenging as the carcinoma component may be hidden by the FA component. If imaging of FA became larger or abnormal changes during follow-up examinations, needle biopsy should be recommended for assessment of the lesion positively.
Conclusion: This is the first report presenting a case of advanced breast cancer in FA of TN phenotype with multiple lymph node metastases who achieved pCR even if IDC was located within FA.
Keywords: Case report; Fibroadenoma; Invasive ductal carcinoma; Neoadjuvant chemotherapy; Pathological complete response; Triple negative.
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