Pituitary Metastasis of Breast Cancer: A Case Report

Abstract

Summary: Metastasis to the pituitary gland is an unusual situation in clinical practice and is typically observed only in elderly patients, but its incidence is increasing because of the increased survival of patients with cancer. In most cases, such metastasis is found in patients aged 60–70 years, who usually present with various non-specific symptoms. The most common primary sites are breasts in women and lungs in men. The prognosis of patients with breast cancer metastasis is poor but it depends on the primary neoplastic extension. We report a case of a 63-year-old woman with a history of bilateral breast cancer with surgery 15 years ago on the left side and 8 years ago on the right side. A pituitary macroadenoma was first suspected because of a visual disturbance for months before a magnetic resonance imaging examination. The patient underwent resection of the pituitary tumor by endoscopic transnasal trans-sphenoidal surgery. The final histopathological and immunohistochemistry analysis confirmed a pituitary metastasis of breast mucinous carcinoma. Postoperative follow-up continued for 2.5 half years, and the subsequent clinical imaging studies did not show local recurrence of the primary malignancy. She is currently disease free and has a good performance status. Keywords: breast cancer, metastasis, pituitary