Search

The patient was a 40-year-old woman who was admitted to our hospital because of severe cough and dyspnea due to multiple lung metastases from breast cancer, who had undergone Auchincloss operation for right breast cancer about five years earlier. While systemic chemotherapy (CAF) was started after admission,she presented with cardiac tamponade. A cardiac echogram revealed marked retention of pericardial effusion. Pericardiocentesis was carried out, and the cytology of the effusion showed class V, resulting in the diagnosis of carcinomatous cardiac tamponade due to breast cancer. She was treated with intrapericardial chemotherapy using OK-432 and mitomycin C (MMC), and has not suffered from pericardial effusion after the intrapericardial chemotherapy. Intrapericardial chemotherapy using OK-432 and MMC may be very useful for malignant pericardial effusion.

We experienced changes in ultrasonographic features of hepatic parenchyma in 156 patients treated with Tamoxifen (TAM) as an adjuvant hormonal therapy for breast cancer. After the treatment with TAM subsequent to the surgery for breast cancer, 36% of patients showed changes in ultrasonographic features of the liver more than Grade 2, despite no obvious hepatic involvement at the start of the medication. Forty-five percent of affected patients showed Grade 2 or 3 changes in hepatic parenchymal images within the first 6 months of TAM medication, while the average interval of change was 11.3 months. Abdominal ultrasound inspection should be undertaken within 6 months of surgery to aid the early detection of liver metastasis and fatty liver changes, which may play an important role in determining postoperative follow-up care for breast cancer patients.