Incidental diagnosis of breast cancer in the pursuit of the treatment of intestinal obstruction
CONCLUSION Intestinal lipomatosis is rare and frequently asymptomatic, but occasionally it can present as an intestinal obstruction and should be kept as a differential diagnosis in unusual cases. Pre-operative image findings and even intra-operative macroscopic findings can be misleading; therefore, histologic evaluation will confirm the diagnosis. Ovarian metastasis eventually can be an incidental finding and be identified before the primary breast tumor. Metastatic involvement of the peritoneum in breast cancer patients is rare; thus, it is important to exclude other primary tumors. Stage IV breast cancer should be managed with endocrine therapy, targeted therapy and/or chemotherapy, depending on the hormonal receptors and the C-erb2 status, plus the patient’s comorbidities, performance status, response to previous treatments, tumor burden, and associated symptoms. Our patient presented a rare cause of intestinal obstruction, a not-so-common case of ovarian and peritoneal carcinomatosis from breast cancer, and a rare case of complete response after chemotherapy in stage IV luminal breast cancer.
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