An autopsy case of breast carcinoma with prominent lipid-secretions in the metastatic foci.

A 70-year-old woman was treated with a simple mastectomy followed by a course of 5000 rad to the breast and chemotherapy with 5-fluorouracil for breast cancer. About 15 months later, the patient died of widespread metastases. An autopsy revealed no recurrent cancer in the breast. The metastases were seen in bones (sternum, ribs and spine), pleura, spleen, uterus, ovaries, small intestine, adrenal glands, and lymph nodes (hilar, periaortic and mesenteric). Histologically, the resected tumor was a solid-tubular carcinoma with an infiltrative growth pattern. At autopsy, the tumor cells in the metastatic foci contained an abundance of lipids in the cytoplasm, while the tumor cells in the primary tumor contained small amounts of lipids.