 |
Case Report
Lupus mastitis: Suspicious breast lesion as a rare presentation of lupus
1 Resident, General Surgery Department, Hospital do Espírito Santo de Évora, Évora, Portugal
2 Surgeon, General Surgery Department, Hospital do Espírito Santo de Évora, Évora, Portugal
3 Senior Surgeon, General Surgery Department, Hospital do Espírito Santo de Évora, Évora, Portugal
4 Retired Senior Surgeon, Former Chief of Department, General Surgery Department, Hospital do Espírito Santo de Évora, Évora, Portugal
5 Chief of Department, General Surgery Department, Hospital do Espírito Santo de Évora, Évora, Portugal
Address correspondence to:
Maria Cristina Botelho Hasse Velez
R. Almada Negreiros, 28, 7005-288 Évora,
Portugal
Message to Corresponding Author
Article ID: 100118Z06MV2023
Access full text article on other devices
Access PDF of article on other devices
How to cite this article
Velez MCBH, Lima R, Ribeiro S, Félix R, Caravana J, Carvalho M. Lupus mastitis: Suspicious breast lesion as a rare presentation of lupus. Case Rep Int 2023;12(2):1–5.ABSTRACT
Introduction: Lupus mastitis is a rare disease. Rarely it can present in a patient without the diagnosis of lupus, being its first and even only manifestation. This makes the diagnosis even more challenging. The authors present a case that shows the difficult clinical pathway from diagnosis to treatment of an infrequent and poorly known disease.
Case Report: A 42-year-old female was referred to our breast surgery outpatient clinic for a suspicious lesion in her right breast with a 10-month evolution. The patient had already been submitted to a series of imaging procedures and tissue biopsies. She did not have history of any autoimmune diseases. The patient was evaluated by different specialties and the diagnosis of lupus mastitis posed a challenge for all physicians involved. Since both clinicians and patient were concerned with malignancy, an excisional biopsy was performed. Lupus mastitis was the definitive diagnosis. The postoperative healing was challenging. The question whether excisional biopsy should or not be performed, as well as surgical procedures in general, was brought up. The risk and fear of malignancy were weighted against the gain of the procedure.
Conclusion: Lupus mastitis is a rare and likely overlooked disease. It should be taken into consideration as a differential diagnosis for suspicious breast lesions. Need for surgery, being it excisional biopsy or lumpectomy, should be carefully weighted. This decision should be based on the risk of malignancy and efficacy of medical treatment.
Keywords: Autoimmune disease, Breast suspicious lesion, Challenging diagnosis, Lupus mastitis
SUPPORTING INFORMATION
Author Contributions
Maria Cristina Botelho Hasse Velez - Substantial contributions to conception and design, Acquisition of data, Analysis of data, Interpretation of data, Drafting the article, Revising it critically for important intellectual content, Final approval of the version to be published
Rita Lima - Acquisition of data, Analysis of data, Revising it critically for important intellectual content, Final approval of the version to be published
Susana Ribeiro - Analysis of data, Interpretation of data, Revising it critically for important intellectual content, Final approval of the version to be published
Rosa Félix - Substantial contributions to conception and design, Analysis of data, Final approval of the version to be published
Jorge Caravana - Acquisition of data, Interpretation of data, Revising it critically for important intellectual content, Final approval of the version to be published
Manuel Carvalho - Interpretation of data, Revising it critically for important intellectual content, Final approval of the version to be published
Guaranter of SubmissionThe corresponding author is the guarantor of submission.
Source of SupportNone
Consent StatementWritten informed consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this article.
Data AvailabilityAll relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files.
Conflict of InterestAuthors declare no conflict of interest.
Copyright© 2023 Maria Cristina Botelho Hasse Velez et al. This article is distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium provided the original author(s) and original publisher are properly credited. Please see the copyright policy on the journal website for more information.
