Metastatic Breast Cancer First Presenting as a Primary Gastric Carcinoma

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. Metastatic disease involvement of the stomach is usually a manifestation of advanced disease. Isolated metastatic involvement of the stomach from a primary breast lesion is rare. These lesions can mimic primary gastric carcinoma and can be hard to distinguish due to very similar clinical, endoscopic and histological features. The authors here describe a case of a 70-year-old woman who was admitted with anemia and weight loss. An oesophagogastroduodenoscopy identified a mass in the stomach and biopsies were consistent with upper gastrointestinal adenocarcinoma. However, a subsequent staging computational tomography showed a right breast lesion and immunostaining of the gastric biopsies were consistent with a breast metastasis. This is a rare case of metastatic breast cancer presenting with gastrointestinal tract symptoms and highlights the importance of considering breast cancer as the primary origin for any gastric malignancy.