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Case Report Volume 17 Issue 3
Extensive, diffusely invasive lobular carcinoma of the breast mistakenly presumed to be posttraumatic scarring
László Tabár, Peter B Dean, Miklós Tarján
Department of Mammography, Falun Central Hospital, Sweden
Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Turku, Finland
Department of Clinical Pathology and Cytology, Falun Central Hospital, Sweden
Received: June 12, 2026 | Published: June 22, 2026
Citation: Tabár L, Dean PB, Tarján M. Extensive, diffusely invasive lobular carcinoma of the breast mistakenly presumed to be posttraumatic scarring. J Cancer Prev Curr Res. 2026;17(3):96‒99. DOI: 10.15406/jcpcr.2026.17.00614
Abstract
Background: The imaging biomarker, extensive, non-calcified architectural distortion on the mammogram, is characteristic for only a few differential diagnostic options. The benign diagnostic options are traumatic fat necrosis, radial scar and granulomatous mastitis; the malignant diseases are either breast cancer originating in the hybrid stem cells of the mesenchyme (aka invasive lobular carcinoma) or non-calcified neoductgenesis, an invasive breast cancer originating in the major lactiferous ducts. Thorough clinical breast examination followed by multimodality breast imaging and microscopic examination of the larger-bore specimen can lead to the correct diagnosis. Case presentation: The two deceptive cases presented here illustrate important teaching points. Their common features were a history of considerable trauma to the chest and each patient’s insistence upon the benign nature of the palpable findings. These factors misled the breast imagers and caused a delayed diagnosis. Conclusion: The main teaching point for the breast imager is that a palpable thickening at clinical breast examination associated with non-calcified architectural distortion on the mammogram should always be considered a malignant process, despite any misleading information about a history of trauma to the breast. The diagnosis should be based on the microscopic examination of a sufficient amount of tissue removed from the palpable lesion, using a larger bore needle biopsy or surgical biopsy. Fine needle aspiration biopsy may lead to underdiagnosis.
Keywords: breast cancer, traumatic fat necrosis, invasive lobular carcinoma, BCMO (breast cancer of mesenchymal pluripotent hybrid stem cell origin
©2026 Tabár, et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and build upon your work non-commercially.