Pleomorphic liposarcoma of the male breast: lessons from a rare malignancy during COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

A 52-year-old man presented with a recurrent right side breast lump. He had undergone excision of a lump on the right breast followed by adjuvant chemoradiotherapy 1 year ago for a diagnosis of pleomorphic liposarcoma. Imaging revealed a 47×36 mm lesion on the right side of the chest wall involving the pectoralis muscle. The patient underwent right radical mastectomy. Histology of the specimen showed an undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma infiltrating into the underlying skeletal muscle. Therefore, he was planned for chemoradiotherapy. But due to lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic, he was lost to follow-up and later presented with malignant pleural effusion. This case emphasises the impact of COVID-19 pandemic over such rare malignancies.