A 34-year-old premenopausal woman developed asynchronous bilateral nonpalpable breast cancers at the age of 32 and 34 years.
She had undergone amputation of her left lower leg because of osteosarcoma at the age of 16. Her mother had been diagnosed
with breast cancer at the age of 45. The clinicopathological features of the two breast tumors in this patient closely resembled
each other; both were nonpalpable, and detectable only by helical CT scan. Histologically, they consisted mainly of an intraductal
component with small grade 3 invasive foci. In addition, both tumors estrogen receptor (ER) status was negative, and both
were positive for c-erbB-2 protein on immunohistochemical staining. A missense germ line mutation of
BRCA2 (exon 25 codon 3118; Met31 1 8Thr) was detected in this patient. These data may provide useful information on the carcinogenesis
and biological behavior of breast cancers which develop in patients with
BRCA2 germ line mutations.
Key words BRCA2 - Hereditary breast cancer - Histological grade - Osteosarcoma