Metastatic Breast Cancer to the Gastrointestinal Tract: Report of Five Cases and Review of the Literature

Table 2

Results from reviewing of the literature: patients with breast cancer and GI involvement.

Site of GI involvement	Clinical presentation/clinical symptoms	N. (%)	Treatment	References
Oropharynx	Oropharyngeal dysphagia	1	n.r.	[2]
	Tongue lesion	1	n.r.	[7]
Total oropharynx		2 (1%)
Esophagus	Stricture	20	Dil., surg., ET	[2, 8–23]
	Achalasia	3	Surg., ET	[2, 24, 25]
	Nonspecific dysmotility	1	n.r.	[26]
Total esophagus		24 (12%)
Stomach	Linitis plastica	57	Surg., CT, ET, RT	[2, 27–38]
	Obstruction/stenosis	27	Surg., CT	[1, 2, 27, 28, 39]
	Polyp	2	CT, ET, RT	[40, 41]
	Ulcer erosion/bleeding	12	CT, ET, RT, Surg.	[27, 28, 41–44]
	Perforation	2	Surg., CT, ET	[27, 45]
	Pain	10	CT, ET	[27, 46]
	Dyspepsia	11	n.r.	[27, 46]
	n.r.	1	n.r.	[47]
	n.r.	3	Surg., CT, ET	[48]
Total stomach		125 (60%)
Small intestine	Obstruction/stenosis	12	Pall. care, surg., ET, RT, CT	[2, 49–57]
	Multiple obstructions	1	n.r.	[2]
	Peritonitis	1	Surg.	[58]
	Bleeding	1	Surg.	[59]
	n.r.	1	n.r.	[60]
Total small intestine		16 (8%)
Colon	Obstruction/stenosis	16	ET, CT, RT, Surg.	[54, 61–69]
	Asymptomatic abdominal mass	1	Surg.	[1]
	Multiple strictures/diffuse infiltration	2	n.r.	[2, 70]
	Polyp	2	Surg., ET	[53, 71]
	Linitis plastica	1	Surg.	[72]
	n.r.	1	n.r.	[47]
Total colon		23 (11%)
Rectum	Obstruction/stenosis	11	CT, RT, ET, Surg.	[56, 61, 73–77]
	Linitis plastica	1	n.r.	[33]
	Abdominal pain	1	CT	[39]
	Rectal bleeding	1	n.r.	[46]
Total rectum		14 (7%)
Anum	Polyp	1	RT, ET	[78]
	n.r.	1	n.r.	[79]
Total anum		2 (1%)
Total		206

CT: chemotherapy; ET: endocrine therapy; RT: radiotherapy; Surg.: surgery; Dil: dilatation, Pall. care: palliative care; n.r.: not reported.