Metastatic Breast Cancer Returning About 20 Years After Initial Treatment

What happened, in summary

A woman in her 70s had been treated for right breast invasive ductal cancer about 20 years earlier with mastectomy, radiation, and endocrine therapy with letrozole and tamoxifen. She then had a sustained remission and was followed by oncology until 2013, when she was lost to follow-up.

Two decades after her original treatment, she developed swelling, shortness of breath, joint pain, Raynaud’s symptoms, fatigue, and weight loss. Imaging showed multiple suspicious bone lesions, and a vertebral biopsy confirmed recurrent metastatic breast cancer. The recurrent tumor was estrogen-receptor positive, progesterone-receptor negative, and HER2-positive. Her clinical picture also included severe scleroderma-like illness, kidney injury, pleural effusions, and pulmonary hypertension.

Doctors discussed systemic treatment for the recurrent breast cancer, but her condition deteriorated before therapy could start. She developed worsening kidney failure, rapidly reaccumulating pleural effusions, and severe volume overload. Palliative care was consulted, and she chose supportive care. Her metastatic recurrence occurred after an unusually long interval—about 20 years after the original breast-cancer treatment—and her declining health prevented a new anticancer treatment course from starting.