Abstract
A 54-year-old male presented with a painless, hard, irregular lump in his right breast, with fixation to the pectoralis muscle. Mammography and ultrasound showed a 2.5-cm mass suspicious of malignancy. The patient underwent a wide local excision. A 2.5-cm hard, stellate lump was found and sent to the pathologist, which revealed this to be a benign granular cell tumor. Granular cell tumor of the breast is a rare neoplasm, of unknown etiology, which is benign in 98% of cases, but mimics breast cancer, causing challenging diagnostic and therapeutic dilemmas. Traditional imaging techniques do not recognize any feature specific for this tumor. Only excisional biopsy allows the detection of the distinct histological and immunohistochemical profile of the lesion (granular cytoplasm and staining for the S-100 protein). Only local surgical excision is indicated. General and senologist surgeons must be aware of this entity to avoid unnecessary mastectomy or lymphadenectomy.
References
Brown AC, Audisio RA, Regitnig P (2010) Granular cell tumour of the breast. Surg Oncol [Epub ahead of print]
Adeniran A, Al-Ahmadie H, Mahoney MC, Robinson-Smith TM (2004) Granular cell tumor of the breast: a series of 17 cases and review of the literature. Breast J 10(6):528–531
Qureshi NA, Tahir M, Carmichael AR (2006) Granular cell tumour of the soft tissues: a case report and literature review. Int Sem Surg Onc 3:21
Mittal KR, True LD (1988) Origin of granules in GCT: intracellular myelin formation with autodigestion. Arch Pathol Lab Med 112:302–303
Scheithauer BW, Woodruff JM, Erlandson RA (1997) Benign granular cell tumors and malignant granular cell tumors. In: Tumors of the peripheral nervous system, atlas of tumor pathology. 3rd edn. Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Washington, DC, pp 248, 259, 358–365
Patel A, Lefemine V, Yousuf SM, Abou-Samra W (2008) Granular cell tumour of the pectoral muscle mimicking breast cancer. Cases J 6:142
Hoess C, Freitag K, Kolben M, Allgayer B, Laemmer-Skarke I, Nathrath WB (1998) FDG-PET evaluation of granular cell tumor of the breast. J Nucl Med 39:1398–1401
Lee S, Morimoto K, Kaseno S, Katsuragi K, Hosono M, Wakasa K, Kinoshita H (2000) Granular cell tumor of the male breast: report of a case. Surg Today 30(7):658–662
Yang WT, Edeiken-Monroe B, Sneige N, Fornage BD (2006) Sonographic and mammographic appearances of granular cell tumors of the breast with pathological correlation. J Clin Ultrasound 34(4):153–160
Sirgi KE, Sneige N, Fanning TV, Fornage BD, Ordonez NG, Swanson PE (1996) Fine needle aspirates of granular cell lesions of the breast: report of three cases with emphasis on differential diagnosis and utility of immunostaining for CD68(KP1). Diagn Cytopathol 15:403–408
Ohnishi H, Nishihara K, Tamae K, Mitsuyama S, Abe R, Toyoshima S (1996) Granular cell tumors of the breast: a report of two cases. Surg Today 26:929–932
Pieterse AS, Mahar A, Orell S (2004) Granular cell tumour: a pitfall in FNA cytology of breast lesions. Pathology 36:58–62
Rosso R, Scelsi M, Carnevali L (2000) Granular cell traumatic neuroma: a lesion occuring in mastectomy scars. Arch Pathol Lab Med 124:709–711
Lelle RJ, Park H, Brow CA (1992) Benign granular cell tumor mimicking carcinoma of the breast. Report of a case. Eur J Gynaecol Oncol 13:390–393
Delaloye F, Seraj F, Guillou L, Genton CY, Anciaux-Le Teno D, Schnyder P (2002) Granular cell tumor of the breast: a diagnostic pitfall. Breast 11:316–319
Quoroz-Rodriquez G, Robles-Vidal C, Guzman-Navarro L, Ortiz-Hidalgo C (2006) Granular cell (Abrikossof) tumor of the breast. Breast J 12:494
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Taglietti, L., Vettoretto, N., Blanzuoli, L. et al. Granular cell tumor of the male breast. Updates Surg 63, 139–142 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13304-011-0051-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13304-011-0051-1