Palpable, Tender Breast Mass
Case History: 52-year-old female presented with a palpable, tender mass in the left breast.
Case History: A 52-year-old female presented with a palpable, tender mass in the left breast. No symptoms in the right breast.
No symptoms in the right breast.
Figure 1. Bilateral tomographic MLO high-resolution breast PET shows significant uptake in each breast corresponding with biopsy confirmed cancer.
Figure 1 (Continued). Bilateral tomographic MLO high-resolution breast PET shows significant uptake in each breast corresponding with biopsy confirmed cancer.
Figure 2. Bilateral tomographic axillary high-resolution breast PET shows suspicious uptake in 3 lymph nodes in the left axilla; right axilla is negative.
Figure 2 (Continued). Bilateral tomographic axillary high-resolution breast PET shows suspicious uptake in 3 lymph nodes in the left axilla; right axilla is negative.
Diagnosis: Bilateral breast cancer
Clinical evaluation of the axilla is an area of increasing interest in managing breast cancer.
Current standard of care is trending toward optimizing preoperative techniques that can inform the surgical and treatment approach.
Abnormal lymph nodes seen on the PET scan should undergo ultrasound-guided FNA or core biopsy to confirm findings.
Our current practice is to perform ipsilateral high resolution PET imaging of the axilla on patients with a diagnosis of invasive breast cancer and selective DCIS cases
