Failure of imaging techniques in revealing breast cancer progression

This study focuses on a case of a 67-year-old woman with occult breast cancer involving the axillary lymph nodes. The instrumental examinations employed, positron emission tomography included, were not useful in diagnosing the disease. When the patient was surgically treated micro-invasive breast cancer was diagnosed. This peculiar malignant pathology is a matter of discussion especially because it is hardly diagnosable. Because of such diagnostic difficulties it may happen that micro-invasive carcinoma progression can easily mislead routine diagnostic screenings performed on women over 50.

Breast cancer; Micro-invasive breast carcinoma; Early diagnosis; Imaging techniques

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