Fibrocystic Disease of Vulvar Ectopic Breast Tissue

Ectopic mammary tissue in vulva: case report and systematic literature review

Objective

To report the case of a patient diagnosed with ectopic mammary tissue in the vulva, and to conduct a literature review of the diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of this condition in that location.

Materials and Methods

A 49-year-old patient who presented with a painful vulvar mass to a private intermediate complexity center in Bogotá, Colombia. The lesion was assessed on ultrasound and then surgically excised; histopathology showed ectopic mammary tissue with absence of malignancy. A search was conducted in the PubMed, Embase, Cochrane, LILACS and Scielo databases using the keywords “Vulva,” “Breast” and “Ectopic.” Case reports and case series of women with histopathology-confirmed mammary tissue in the vulva were included.

Results

Overall, 184 titles were identified and, of these, 94 were ultimately included, for a total of 126 cases, with 57.9% being benign tumors, 95% in women under 50 years of age, and 42.06% being malignant tumors, 92% in women over 50 years of age. Diagnosis was made on the basis of the clinical findings, with ancillary diagnostic imaging, tumor markers and immunohistochemistry in some cases. Local excision was performed in 91% of cases with benign pathology and in 43% of cases with malignant pathology, with the diagnostic method being therapeutic.

Conclusions

Ectopic mammary tissue in the vulva must be considered as part of the differential diagnosis of vulvar masses, prognosis being different in pre and postmenopausal women. Further studies are needed to enhance the characterization of this condition and define the ideal course of treatment in terms of relapse and survival.

Carcinoma Originating from Aberrant Breast Tissue. A Case Report and Review of the Literature

Carcinoma arising from ectopic breast tissue, either supernumerary breast or aberrant breast tissue, is extremely rare. Carcinoma occurs more frequently in the ectopic breast tissue of the axilla than in extra-axillary ectopic breast tissue. Here we report a case of an invasive lobular carcinoma arising from extra-axillary ectopic breast tissue and presenting as a subcutaneous nodule.

A tumoriform lesion of the vulva with features of mammary-type fibrocystic disease

: Fibrocystic disease is a common benign lesion of the breast. Variably sized cysts, apocrine metaplasia, fibrosis, calcification, chronic inflammation, and epithelial hyperplasia are the basic morphological changes seen in mammary fibrocystic disease. We report a rare tumoriform lesion of the vulva with features of fibrocystic disease, which seems to be the first description of this condition in the vulva. The pertinent literature is discussed. The reported lesion further demonstrates the analogy between tumors of anogenital mammary-like glands and mammary neoplasms.

Treatment of a supernumerary large breast with medial pedicle reduction mammaplasty

Accessory breast tissues including nipples, areolas, and glandular tissue may develop on the chest in addition to two normal breasts. An accessory breast with a complete ductal system, areola, and nipple is termed a "supernumerary breast." Supernumerary nipples are fairly common, but complete supernumerary breasts are rare. This report describes an 18-year-old woman who presented with a complete supernumerary breast including a nipple-areola complex located on the upper outer quadrant of her left breast and causing severe breast asymmetry. She was referred to the authors for aesthetic reasons. Unilateral reduction mammaplasty was performed to remove the supernumerary breast and correct the breast asymmetry. The medial pedicle Wise technique was used for en bloc resection of the ectopic breast, including the nipple-areola complex together with the upper outer breast quadrant. The woman's postoperative course was uneventful. At 8 months after surgery, she was very satisfied with the results. Ectopic breast tissue can be treated by a variety of methods such as liposuction or excision. However, breast deformation because of a complete supernumerary breast is very rare, and research on the treatment of such patients is lacking. No reports describing surgical treatment for this condition were identified in the literature. The authors suggest that unilateral breast reduction is the most appropriate treatment, allowing excision of the accessory tissues, with the best possible cosmetic outcome.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE V

This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 .

Mammae erraticae: a case report and reappraisal of the related theories

Extra nipples and breast tissue outside the orthotopic location of the mammary glands are called polythelia and polymastia, respectively. Although the theory of mammary ridge remnants can explain extra breast tissue along the milk line, other locations such as the dorsum of the body still need further discussion. This report describes a 28-year-old Caucasian woman with a perfectly formed breast together with a meningocele in the lumbar region. Kyphoscoliosis and growth retardation were accompanying pathologies. As far as the authors can discern, this is the first case in the literature showing a well-formed breast and dysraphism occurring together.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE V

This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors at www.springer.com/00266.

Lesions of anogenital mammary-like glands: an update

Long considered to be ectopic breast tissue representing the caudal remnants of the milk ridges, anogenital mammary-like glands are nowadays thought to represent a normal constituent of the anogenital area. Lesions involving these glands, benign or malignant, epithelial or stromal manifest a striking similarity to their mammary counterparts. This review addresses the recent literature on lesions of anogenital mammary-like glands and our personal experience with various lesions related to these structures. Discussed are the normal anatomy and histology of these glands as well as the clinical presentation, histopathological and immunohistochemical features, molecular biological aspects, and differential diagnosis of various lesions involving anogenital mammary-like glands, including lactating adenoma, hidradenoma papilliferum, hidradenocarcinoma papilliferum, fibroadenomas, phyllodes tumor, pseudoangiomatous stromal hyperplasia, extramammary Paget disease, and other carcinomas. In addition, "nonspecific" epithelial or stromal changes some of which can be likened to similar changes occurring in a range of benign breast disease, including sclerosing adenosis, columnar cell lesions, ductal lesions and various metaplastic changes affecting epithelium and myoepithelium are discussed. Although lesions of anogenital mammary-like glands are often discussed in many dermatopathology textbooks in the context of cutaneous adnexal neoplasms we advocate that the best approach to the diagnosis of these lesions is to relate them to analogous well recognized lesions occurring in the breast, that is, through the eyes of a breast pathologist. This will enable their recognition, precise classification and should introduce greater uniformity in how they are reported in the literature so that more meaningful clinicopathological comparisons and correlations may be made.

Supernumerary nipple presenting as a vulvar mass in an adolescent: case report and literature review

BACKGROUND

Ectopic breast tissues can be found along the embryonic mammary ridges and can occur in the vulva. While ectopic breast tissue is not uncommon, functional breast with overlying nipple located within the vulva is exceedingly rare.

CASE

A 17-year-old with undiagnosed hypothyroidism presents with vulvar mass draining milky white fluid. A small lesion with appearance similar to a skin tag is noted and milky fluid expressed. Biopsy and excision of this mass confirmed the presence of a functional supernumerary nipple.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

This appears to be the first reported case of a supernumerary nipple with symptomatic lactation in a non-pregnant adolescent. Supernumerary nipple should be considered in the differential diagnosis of a vulvar mass. Ectopic breast tissue in the vulva can undergo malignant transformation, therefore excision of this tissue is generally recommended.

Accessory breast tissue presenting as a vulvar mass in an adolescent girl

BACKGROUND

The development of an accessory breast tissue is attributed to the failure of regression of milk line remnants during embryogenesis. The accessory breasts can develop anywhere along the milk line, extending from axilla to the groin. The vulvar accessory breast is extremely rare among these.

CASE

We report an 18-year-old girl presenting a solitary vulvar mass which is later pathologically confirmed to be an accessory breast tissue. On preoperative ultrasonographic examination, a lobulated echogenic mass with internal septa was seen in the subcutaneous fat layer of the mons pubis. Excisional biopsy was performed, which revealed an accessory breast tissue. She had no specific developmental abnormalities and had no familial history.

CONCLUSION

An accessory breast in the vulva is an extremely rare case among the ectopic breasts, especially in an adolescent girl. Pathological confirmation is mandatory in this case to exclude a possibility of other tumor, including malignancy.

Mammary-type fibroepithelial neoplasms of the vulva: a case report and review of the literature

Mammary-type fibroepithelial neoplasms of the vulva are rare lesions of uncertain histogenesis. Origin from ectopic breast tissue and from anogenital glandular tissue that shares similar histologic homology with breast tissue has been postulated. We report the case of a 45-year-old woman who presented with a vulvar mass of several years duration. Excision of the lesion and subsequent histologic examination showed a mammary-type fibroadenoma with apocrine change. No ectopic breast tissue was identified outside the lesion. The theories of histogenesis of these neoplasms and additional cases of mammary-type lesions of the vulva reported in the medical literature are reviewed.

Expression of the breast differentiation antigen NY-BR-1 in a phyllodes tumor of the vulva

We describe a phyllodes tumor of borderline malignancy in the labium majus of a 49-year-old woman. The histogenetic origin of phyllodes tumors in the vulva is controversial. Strong immunoreactivity for NY-BR-1, a novel breast differentiation antigen, was demonstrated within the epithelial components of the phyllodes tumor. A similar expression pattern was observed in mammary-like glands of the vulva. These findings provide further evidence that phyllodes tumors of the vulva might derive from mammary-like glands in the labium majus or from ectopic breast tissue.

Mammary Type Tubulolobular Carcinoma of the Anogenital Area: Report of a Case of a Unique Tumor Presumably Originating in Anogenital Mammarylike Glands

We present a case of an unusual tumor that occurred in the perianal area of a 64-year-old woman. Clinical investigation revealed no tumor elsewhere. The lesion was removed and the patient is alive without signs of metastasis or recurrence 5.5 years after surgery. Histopathologically, the neoplasm was composed of single-cell cords of uniform round to ovoid cells intermixed with round to elongated tubules showing decapitation secretion at the luminal border. The tubules were mainly composed of a single cell layer, but focally multilayered epithelium (without evidence of myoepithelial cell differentiation) was seen as well as discrete cribriform structures and intraluminal bridges. Overall, the cell cord component slightly dominated over the tubular component, and the two were intermixed. A vague targetoid arrangement of the cell cords was seen focally. Immunohistochemically, the tumor cells in both components reacted positively for E-cadherin, 34betaE12, estrogen receptors and progesterone receptor and were negative for HER2/neu (c-erbB-2). There was no evidence of myoepithelial cell differentiation with calponin. We believe that the present case is best classified as mammary type tubulolobular carcinoma and, given the location, the origin in anogenital mammary-like glands most likely.

Unusual Hyperplasia of Anogenital Mammary-Like Glands

Anogenital mammary-like glands, although known to exist (as ectopic breast tissue) as early as 1872, have only recently been thoroughly studied and suggested to be the possible origin for various neoplastic (benign and malignant) and reactive conditions that show a striking homology with lesions in the breast. Reported herein is an unusual benign lesion involving anogenital mammary-like glands in the perineal area of a 41-year-old woman. The lesion is unique in that it does not fully fit into any of the previously recognized conditions affecting anogenital mammary-like glands nor has it an apparent well-defined mammary counterpart. Microscopically, at first glance the lesion appeared as a cluster of extended anogenital mammary-like glands of variable complexity and a lobular architecture, which probably resulted from a compact proliferation of closely situated ducts with small, round lumens (when cut transversally). When cut longitudinally, some of these tiny ducts appeared to bud from larger ductal structures, resembling so-called satellitosis in the breast and this gave a fibroadenomatous appearance to the areas. In addition, there were adenosis-like areas. This lesion extends the spectrum of changes seen in anogenital mammary-like glands.

Pseudoangiomatous Stromal Hyperplasia in Lesions Involving Anogenital Mammary-Like Glands

Pseudoangiomatous stromal hyperplasia (PASH), first reported in 1986, is nowadays a well-recognized change in the breast. We present three cases of lesions involving anogenital mammary-like glands demonstrating this feature. All patients were females (ages, 42, 43, and 53 years). Each presented with a solitary, 1.5- to 2-cm asymptomatic nodule. Locations included the perianal area, perineum, and labium majus. Histopathologically, one lesion was classified as low-grade phyllodes tumor, another as fibroadenoma, and in the remaining case PASH was found in the background of mild hyperplasia of anogenital mammary-like glands and substantial lipomatous metaplasia. In all lesions, PASH had an identical appearance to that in the breast, that is open, slit-like, often anastomosing channels devoid of erythrocytes and lined by discontinuous, often attenuated, inconspicuous cells without atypia or mitotic activity set in a hyalinized collagenous stroma. Quantitatively, PASH ranged in the above cases, forming a relatively small focus in the fibroadenoma and being quite extensive in the remaining two cases. In the phyllodes tumor, PASH areas exhibited focal hypercellularity and presence of myoid cells. In none of the cases were there cells with intranuclear inclusions or multinucleated cells. The lesions were surgically excised. Two patients with follow-up were disease-free at one and three years after the operation. As to our knowledge, PASH has not been previously described in the anogenital area, this feature seems to have been either overlooked or is genuinely rare in this location. It may occur in a preexisting lesion of anogenital mammary-like glands or may apparently by itself produce a clinically detectable lesion. The clinicopathologic features of PASH in the anogenital area seem to be identical to those in the breast.