Intestinal metastases from breast cancer. Apropos of 8 cases]

Eight patients with intestinal metastases from breast cancer are described. The different clinical presentations and pathological types are studied. The difficulty in distinguishing such uncommon secondary sites of breast cancer from primary intestinal cancer is emphasized. Attention should be paid to intestinal symptoms in women with a history of infiltrating lobular breast cancer: in agreement with recent literature data the lobular type seems mainly responsible for gastrointestinal and peritoneal involvement originating from breast cancer (7 cases out of 8 in our series). Prolonged survival could be obtained if no metastases elsewhere were found with appropriate treatment including ablative surgery, chemotherapy and hormonotherapy.