Case Number 2

It took over 10 years for me to find another "masked" case. This was a mass that appeared in a patient who was postpartum. The patient was placed on birth control pills. I first saw the patient over a year later and found an indefinite mass which the patient said was not growing. Biopsy was not performed immediately because the history and physical findings did not suggest a malignancy. A biopsy was done a few months later at the convenience of the patient, and everyone, including me, was shocked when the tumor proved to be a malignancy and eight axillary nodes were involved. Malignancy was throughout the breast, not just where the indefinite and original mass was palpated.