Breast carcinoma metastatic to the esophagus. CT findings with pathologic correlation

The common sites of metastasis from breast carcinoma include local and distant lymph nodes, lung parenchyma, bone, liver, and brain. While less common, gastrointestinal carcinoma, involving everything from the tip of the tongue to the rectum, secondary to metastatic breast carcinoma have been reported. Many of these lesions occur years after treatment of the primary breast cancer and they can be confused with a second primary. We present a case of breast cancer metastatic to the esophagus which produced symptoms of progressive dysphagia in a woman thirteen years after mastectomy and radiation therapy for breast cancer.