Cold autoimmune hemolytic anemia: a rare association with triple-positive breast cancer

• Main Authors: Abubakar Tauseef, Muhammad Sohaib Asghar, Maryam Zafar, Iftekhar Ahmed, Mustafa Dawood, Tooba Shaikh, Narmin Khan, Tanveer Alam
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2019-11-01
• Series: Journal of Community Hospital Internal Medicine Perspectives
• Subjects: autoimmune; anemia; rare; triple-positive; breast; carcinoma
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/20009666.2019.1698262

A 45-year-old Asian woman was presented with fever, easy fatigability, shortness of breath, cervical and axillary lymphadenopathy and other signs and symptoms of anemia. After all the baseline work-up, the patient was investigated for Mono-coombs C3d levels, which were elevated, suggesting the diagnosis of Cold autoimmune hemolytic anemia (Cold AIHA). An Ultrasound-guided true-cut biopsy was done to determine the primary cause associated with it, which showed the presence of tumor cells arranged in cords and clusters. They have dark staining cells with mitotic activity, suggestive of breast carcinoma as an association of Cold AIHA. Estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) were sent, which came out to be positive. So, the patient was diagnosed with Cold AIHA in association with triple-positive breast cancer.