Disappearing grouped breast calcifications: An ominous sign

Abstract

Spontaneous disappearing breast calcifications is a rarely-reported phenomenon and the relatively small number of studies that have been done mostly associated the resolution of benign-appearing breast calcifications with benign processes. We present a case of a postmenopausal woman who had spontaneously resolving grouped, coarse heterogenous calcifications in the setting a new soft tissue mass which was pathologically proven to be invasive ductal carcinoma. A handful of studies have shown the resolution of indeterminant calcifications to be associated with malignancy, and interestingly, all of these cases also demonstrated a new parenchymal abnormality which is akin to the present case. Overall, the majority of benign-appearing spontaneous resolving microcalcifications likely are related to benign processes; however, radiologists should be aware of the association of disappearing grouped, indeterminant calcifications with the resulting development of malignancy, especially in the presence of a nearby, newly-forming soft tissue mass.

Keywords

• Disappearing calcifications
• Resolving calcifications
• Breast cancer
• Malignancy, Mammography