Male occult breast cancer with features highly resembling primary lung cancer - a case report and literature review

Sep 23, 2026

Rare in men, male occult breast cancer presents major diagnostic difficulty, especially when tumor features mimic other malignancies. This case report describes a 55-year-old male with occult breast cancer whose principal imaging finding was an isolated pulmonary mass lesion, along with axillary lymph node involvement, producing strong features resembling primary lung cancer. After chemotherapy and intracranial radiotherapy, the report emphasizes differential diagnosis considerations for metastatic disease from an unknown primary when pulmonary pathology does not match conventional lung cancer markers.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages7

Reading Time18 min

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Introduction

Case report

TYPE Case Report PUBLISHED 12 January 2026 DOI 10.3389/fonc.2025.1737310 OPEN ACCESS EDITED BY Xiaoyun Mao, The First Afﬁliated Hospital of China Medical University, China REVIEWED BY Shijing Wang, China Medical University, China Ana-Maria Petrescu, Spitalul Clinic Judetean de Urgentã Craiova, Romania *CORRESPONDENCE Mianli Li [lml0747@163.com](lml0747@163.com) †These authors have contributed equally to this work and share ﬁrst authorship RECEIVED 01 November 2025 REVISED 16 December 2025 ACCEPTED 22 December 2025 PUBLISHED 12 January 2026 CITATION Su H, Zhao X, Liu H, Shu H, Li W, Yang Z and Li M (2026) Male occult breast cancer with features highly resembling primary lung cancer: a case report and literature review. Front. Oncol. 15:1737310 . doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1737310 COPYRIGHT © 2026 Su, Zhao, Liu, Shu, Li, Yang and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. Male occult breast cancer with features highly resembling primary lung cancer: a case report and literature review Hao Su †, Xinyu Zhao †, Huayu Liu, Huantong Shu, Wenjing Li, Zhimin Yang and Mianli Li* Department of Oncology, Binzhou Medical University Hospital, Binzhou, Shandong, China Male breast cancer is an extremely rare form of malignant tumor, and occult breast cancer is also an exceptionally uncommon disease. Given its rarity, diagnosing occult breast cancer in male patients presents signiﬁcant challenges, and the diagnosis becomes even more difﬁcult when the tumor exhibits characteristics of other neoplasms. For instance, this case report describes a male patient with occult breast cancer presenting with features typical of primary lung cancer. The uniqueness and complexity of this case lie in its clinical presentation: beyond typical axillary lymph node enlargement, the primary imaging feature was an isolated pulmonary mass lesion. This presented signiﬁcant diagnostic hurdles. For the diagnosis of this case, we administered chemotherapy and intracranial radiotherapy to the patient. Therefore, sharing this rare case aims to heighten clinicians ’ awareness of differential diagnoses for metastatic cancer with an unknown primary site, particularly when pathological ﬁndings of pulmonary lesions do not align with conventional lung cancer markers. KEYWORDS case report, male breast cancer, occult breast cancer, primary lung cancer, systemic therapy 1 Introduction Male breast cancer is a rare malignant tumor, and occult breast cancer is also an uncommon type of breast cancer characterized by presenting primarily with axillary lymph node or distant organ metastases. Today we discuss a case of occult breast cancer in a male patient exhibiting highly characteristic features of primary lung cancer. The unique aspect of this case lies in its clinical presentation: beyond the typical feature of axillary lymph node enlargement, the most signiﬁcant manifestation was an isolated pulmonary mass lesion. Its imaging features are highly characteristic of primary lung cancer, presenting signiﬁcant diagnostic and therapeutic challenges. Frontiers in Oncology 01 [frontiersin.org](frontiersin.org) Su et al. 10.3389/fonc.2025.1737310 FIGURE 1 Changes in the pulmonary mass and left axillary lymph nodes. (A-F) Shows the right lung lessions and left axillary lymph node lesions on June 1, June 4, and July 21, 2025, respectively. (The red arrows point to the lesions) . 2 Case report This case involves a 55-year-old male patient with no family history of breast cancer or other tumors. He has no history of long

FAQs

Why is diagnosing male occult breast cancer challenging in this case?

Male occult breast cancer is rare, and diagnosis becomes harder when the tumor shows characteristics that resemble other neoplasms, particularly when imaging findings suggest primary lung cancer.

What clinical and imaging features led to suspicion of primary lung cancer?

Beyond axillary lymph node enlargement, the dominant manifestation was an isolated pulmonary mass lesion with imaging features highly characteristic of primary lung cancer.

How was the patient managed after diagnostic evaluation?

The report describes chemotherapy and intracranial radiotherapy as part of the treatment after metastatic disease was considered and other contraindications were excluded.

Sep 23, 2026

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