Centrally necrotizing breast carcinoma: a rare histological subtype, which was cause of misdiagnosis in an evident clinical local recurrence

Centrally necrotizing carcinoma is a rare subtype of breast carcinoma, which is characterized by an extensive central necrotic zone accounting for at least 70% of the cross-sectional area of the neoplasm. This central necrotic zone, in turn, is surrounded by a narrow rim of proliferative viable tumor cells. We report an unusual clinical situation in which a patient whose evident breast mass suggested an ipsilateral local recurrence and for which numerous attempts to confirm the histological diagnosis had failed. The patient was treated with a radical mastectomy based on clinical suspicion of breast cancer recurrence after an undesirable delay. In this case, the narrow rim of viable malignant tissue had a thickness of 0.5 to 8 mm, and the centrally necrotizing carcinoma had a central zone with a predominance of fibrosis. The special features of this case led to a misdiagnosis and to an evident clinical local recurrence.