Breast cancer in pregnancy; routine examination, diagnosis and management: A case report

Copyright © 2013 Anne-Beatrice Kihara et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Pregnancy associated breast cancer is defined as breast cancer diagnosed during pregnancy or in the first postpartum year. The incidence is rare; however it is important to be aware of its occurrence with the increased challenges posed by delays in diagnosis, treatment and optimiza-tion of maternal and fetal outcomes. The case report presented is of a 36 years old, Para 0 + 2 known diabetic and hypertensive pregnant wo-man, first seen in the antenatal clinic at 14 weeks of gestation. The patient requested for a breast examination following National campaigns conducted during the International Breast Can-cer Awareness month. The examination revealed a grossly enlarged right breast with “peau de orange ” skin changes. The patient eventually underwent radical mastectomy. Histopathology revealed a grade 3 invasive ductal carcinoma with lymphovascular invasion (Stage TNM). This case is presented to highlight missed opportu-nities in antenatal clinic settings for screening, diagnosis and treatment of cancer of the breast in pregnancy. The role of a multidisciplinary ap-proach to management has also been empha-sized