World Journal of Surgical Medical and Radiation Oncology Volume No 9
Review
Brachial Plexopathy Due to Breast Cancer Metastasis: Report of a Case and Systematic Review of Literature
Pandey Manoj and Shukla Mridula
World Journal of Surgical Medical and Radiation Oncology 2018, 7:3
Abstract
Background
Metastatic Brachial
plexopathy is a rare and significant cause of morbidity in patients with breast
cancer that is increasingly being diagnosed with use of FDG PET scanning.
Case Report
A 55 year old women
presented with pain in the shoulder and arm 5 years after undergoing bilateral
mastectomy for infilterating ductal carcinoma. MRI and PET scan confirmed
metastasis to brachial plexus and liver. Biopsy from the brachial plexus and
immunohitochemistry confirmed it to be metastasis from breast cancer. Patient
was treated with chemotherapy and is alive with disease.
Methods of review
A literature
search was carried out on Pubmed using a definite search strategy.
Results
Using the Prisma
guidelines and after the review of abstract 23 relevant studies were
identified. Six studies were identified by back reference and cross references
from these articles. Thus identified total 29 articles are reviewed.
Conclusions
Metastatic
involvement of brachial plexus is rare and is often part of disseminated
disease elsewhere. Radiotherapy and systemic therapy is the treatment of
choice. The prognosis is often poor and pain control is optimum with use of
multimodal treatment.
Key words
Breast cancer;
metastasis; chemotherapy; PET scan; radiotherapy; prognosis; imaging
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