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Background: Extra-pulmonary small-cell neoplasms are rare, and treatment planning is challenging for clinicians. The lack of guideline-based management undermines and isolates patients for whom these cancers are not just rare but also real. Small-cell breast cancer (SCBC) is a rare, aggressive disease that accounts for less than 1% of all invasive breast cancers. Here, we report a case of SCBC and discuss the complexities of case management. Case Presentation: A 46-year-old patient presented with a self-detected right breast lump. Mammogram and ultrasound examination showed a 69x47mm dense lesion in the upper outer aspect of the right breast and a 17mm pathologic node in the inferior right axilla. The triple assessment demonstrated a localised high-grade malignant neuroendocrine neoplasm. Management extrapolated from small cell lung cancer management and case reports, consisted of chemotherapy with carboplatin, and etoposide introduced with concurrent radiotherapy, followed by mastectomy with axillary lymph node dissection. A complete pathological response was obtained. Six months following her surgery, metastatic disease in the brain, chest wall, lymph nodes, and lungs developed. Rechallenge with carboplatin and etoposide led to a brief response, and subsequent immunotherapy was ineffective. Conclusion: This case report highlights the challenges of rare tumour management. Establishing registries for these and other rare tumors would facilitate care, reduce patient uncertainty and assist in founding protocol-based care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Systemic therapy is the mainstay of treatment for de novo metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). Heterogeneity between primary tumours and metastases may lead to discordant responses to systemic therapy at these sites. The aim of the present study was to examine these discrepancies and to evaluate the rates of complications arising from the primary tumour and the strategies employed to manage these complications. Electronic medical records were screened for patients eligible for data analysis between January 1st, 2014 and December 31st, 2019. All patients diagnosed with de novo mCRC with primary tumour in situ at the time of initial systemic therapy were included in data analysis. Responses in primary tumour and metastatic sites (according to the Response Evaluation Criteria In Solid Tumours v1.1), discrepancies in these responses and rates of complications arising from primary tumours were assessed along with patient, pathological or molecular factors that may be associated with these discrepant responses or primary tumour complications. A total of 50 patients were identified (median age, 62 years). Right-colon, left-colon and rectal primary tumours comprised 34, 44 and 22% of CRC cases, respectively. All patients received 5-fluorouracil-based chemotherapy (either alone or in combination with oxaliplatin or irinotecan). Disease response (DR), stable disease (SD) and progressive disease (PD) were observed as the first response to systemic therapy in 24, 62 and 12% of primary tumours and in 36, 18 and 44% of metastatic sites, respectively. Only 36% of patients demonstrated concordant responses between the primary tumours and metastases, while the remaining 62% demonstrated discordant responses between the primary tumour and distant metastases (22% had DR with SD; 36% had DR or SD with PD; and 4% had PD with SD in the primary tumour and metastases, respectively). Restaging images were not available for 2% of the patients. Approximately 30% of patients developed complications from primary tumours, including bowel obstruction (6.12%), perforation (6%), rectal pain (6%) and rectal bleeding (10%). Approximately 10% of patients underwent palliative stoma creation. Additionally, 12% required palliative radiotherapy to the primary tumour (due to localized complications arising from the tumour). Discordant responses to systemic therapy between primary tumours and metastases occurred in 60% of patients with de novo mCRC (with primary tumour in situ at the time of first systemic therapy). The observations of the present study have potential implications for molecular tissue analysis to help guide systemic therapy. Tissue from metastatic sites may be preferable to confirm biomarker status in mCRC based on this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]