Metastatic malignant phyllodes tumor of the breast: An aggressive disease—Analysis of 7 cases

Malignant phyllodes tumor (PT) of the breast behaves aggressively and the presentation of distant metastases is varied, ranging from synchronous or short interval commonly to a decade rarely. To assess the clinical and temporal pattern of distant metastases in malignant PTs. A retrospective analysis of patients with Phyllodes tumor of the breast from January, 2001 to November, 2014. There were a total of 167 patients with PT; 49 (29 %) were malignant PT out of which 7 developed distant metastases. Detailed analysis of these 7 patients showed that mean age was 36.71 years (range 28-53 years). Three of the seven patients had additional local recurrences post lumpectomy. The procedure performed were wide local excision with muscle reconstruction (n= 1), lumpectomy (n=1) and mastectomy (n=5). The distant metastases were synchronous (n=2) and other 5 had metastases developing within 2 months to 13 years. The sites for distant metastases included lung, brain, adrenal, paraaortic nodes and bone. Six patients received palliative chemotherapy (CT) and 2 also had radiation therapy for brain metastasis. Only 1 patient is alive and receiving CT and all others succumbed to the disease. Patients with malignant PT of the breast with distant metastases behave aggressively and have a dismal outcome with rare exceptions. They need multimodality therapy and close follow up. Newer targeted therapies may have a role to improve the outcome. © Indian Association of Surgical Oncology 2015.