Concomitant Presence of Carcinoma of Breast in a Patient with Early-Onset Cataract: First Case Report of a Potential Association

Abstract

A recent nation-wide population based retrospective cohort study from Taiwan in 2014 suggested a propensity of developing breast cancer in young females with early-onset cataract. We report here a case of a young non-obese female who presented to us with a large lump in the right breast with skin nodules and bilateral painless progressive diminution of vision. Patient was diagnosed to be suffering from locally advanced carcinoma of right breast with axillary metastasis (Stage III B) and bilateral early-onset nuclear cataract. Patient was started on taxane and anthracycline based neoadjuvant chemotherapy and after three cycles of chemotherapy patient showed partial response (≈50% reduction of tumour mass). Patient underwent small incision cataract surgery in left eye after the first cycle of chemotherapy. However, the patient was lost before any operative intervention could be done as she died in a road traffic accident. Possible mechanism of development of breast cancer in patients with early-onset cataract is discussed. This is the first reported case of a patient of early–onset cataract developing breast cancer as well as the first reported case of concomitant presence of early-onset bilateral cataract with breast cancer.

Keywords

• adjuvant chemoradiation
• anthracycline
• early-onset cataract
• locally advanced carcinoma breast
• modified radical mastectomy