Primary adenoid cystic carcinoma of the breast: a case report

Introduction: Adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC) is a rare pathologic type of the breast neoplasm that occurs in <0.1% of all patients diagnosed with breast cancer. Surgery is the primary treatment. Because of its rarity, the optimal adjuvant treatment of ACC of the breast has no general consensus. With respect to ACC potential for late recurrence in the other sites, long term follow up is needed to determine the treatment results. Here we describe a case of primary ACC of the breast who has survived disease free for 10 years after conservative surgery and radiotherapy without systemic therapy. Case presentation: A 50-year-old female was presented with a mass in her left breast. She underwent mammography and sonography that showed a low density and hypoechoic well defined lesion in lower inner quadrant of left breast, respectively. Due to enlargement of the lesion in her close follow up she was referred for biopsy that ACC was reported in pathologic result and confirmed with immunohistochemistry and pathologic review. She underwent breast conservative surgery and axillary lymph node dissection that revealed primary breast ACC without lymph node involvement. Adjuvant breast radiotherapy was performed and after that patient followed up. She survived disease free for 10 years after the completion of treatment. Conclusion: ACC is a rare malignant neoplasm of the breast with indolent clinical course. long term follow up of our patient show that breast-conserving surgery with postoperative radiotherapy seem to be an successful option in treatment of the patients with this pathology.