Acute lymphoblastic leukemia presenting as a breast lump: A report of two cases

Extra-medullary leukemic infiltration of the breast by acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is very rare. We report two cases of ALL presenting as breast masses and diagnosed on fine-needle aspiration (FNA). Our first patient, a post-partum 30-year-old female, developed bilateral breast lumps in her l...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Syed Besina, Zubaida Rasool, Nuzhat Samoon, Othman Salim Akhtar
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications 2013-01-01
Series:Journal of Cytology
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.jcytol.org/article.asp?issn=0970-9371;year=2013;volume=30;issue=3;spage=201;epage=203;aulast=Besina
Description
Summary:Extra-medullary leukemic infiltration of the breast by acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is very rare. We report two cases of ALL presenting as breast masses and diagnosed on fine-needle aspiration (FNA). Our first patient, a post-partum 30-year-old female, developed bilateral breast lumps in her last trimester of pregnancy and complained of easy fatigability. Our second patient, a 14-year-old girl, presented with a right-breast lump of 1-week duration. She had received treatment for ALL 1 year back and had been in complete remission for the last 1 year. FNA of the breast nodules done in both the cases revealed diffuse infiltration by lymphoblasts. Subsequent hematological investigations confirmed bone marrow involvement by ALL in the first case and extra-medullary relapse in the second case. Fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) is an easy and cost effective method for the early diagnosis of metastatic leukemic infiltration, avoiding unnecessary excisional biopsies in such cases.
ISSN:0970-9371