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Horner’s syndrome (HS) is caused by an interruption of the cervical sympathetic pathway to the eye and the face. Acquired HS is mainly caused by benign or malignant neoplasms, and in patients with a history of cancer, it is almost always the result of tumor infiltration into the periphery or the central region of the cervical sympathetic chain. We present the case of a 52-year-old patient with long-term disease-free survival (6 years) after a radical mastectomy for breast cancer who presented with cervicobrachialgia and typical HS due to a left lateral-cervical and supraclavicular lymph nodal mass. Treatment of the metastatic disease with taxanes and concurrent trastuzumab resulted in a complete pain resolution, as well as long-term clinical and radiologic remission; however, the neurological cohort of HS remained as the expression of permanent damage to the sympathetic pathway. This report presents a highly rare case of HS as the first and solitary appearance of metastatic disease in a breast cancer patient. This neurologic involvement should always raise suspicion of metastatic infiltration, and the early recognition of the syndrome may prevent permanent nerve injury.

Background Metastases from breast cancer cause the frequent involvement of lung, bone, liver, and brain, while the occurrence of metastases to the gastrointestinal tract is rare, and more frequently discovered after a primary diagnosis of breast cancer. Solitary pancreatic metastases from breast cancer, without widespread disease, are actually unusual, and only 19 cases have been previously described; truly exceptional is a solitary pancreatic metastasis becoming evident together with the primary breast cancer. Case presentation A 68-year-old woman reported general fatigue, lethargy, and jaundice. Abdominal ultrasound (US) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed an ampulloma of Vater’s papilla; moreover, a neoplastic nodule in the left breast was diagnosed. She underwent surgery for both breast cancer and ampulloma of Vater’s papilla. Pathological examination of pancreatic specimen, however, did not confirm primary carcinoma of the duodenal papilla, but showed a metastatic involvement of pancreas from lobular breast cancer. Immunohistochemistry has been essential to confirm the origin of the malignancy: hormone receptors and mammaglobin were expressed in both the primary breast tumor and the pancreatic metastasis. Conclusions This is one of the few reported cases in literature of an isolated and synchronous pancreatic metastasis from breast cancer, where the definitive diagnosis was obtained only after surgery. We discuss the controversies in this diagnosis and the choice of correct treatment. The surgical resection of solitary metastases can be performed in the absence of disseminated disease.

The treatment choice for metastatic breast cancer should consider the appropriate balance between efficacy and toxicity of the therapy. We discuss a clinical case with an early response and prolonged to liposomal anthracyclines-based chemotherapy, without cardiotoxicity, enhancing the evidence of safety of liposomal formulation to prevent heart damage. Moreover, the case seems to be of interest for the role of 18F-FDG-PET in clinical response assessment: an early decrease of the standardized uptake value value, even before conventional imaging evaluation, is highly predictive for prolonged clinical response.