Bilateral Thumb Metastasis From Breast Carcinoma

INVOLVEMENT of the skeletal system by breast carcinoma is a relatively common occurrence. Osseous metastases, in fact, occur more frequently from carcinoma of the breast than from any other primary malignant neoplasm.1Of patients with carcinoma of the breast, 53% to 78% have been reported to develop bony metastases.2,3Deposits tend to occur mainly in those bones with hematopoietic active marrow (vertebrae, pelvis, ribs, proximal end of the femurs and humeri, and skull). The distal segments of limbs are rarely affected.4 We have not been able to discover a previous case of bilateral thumb metastases secondary to carcinoma of the breast, and the rarity of such a clinical entity has prompted the following report. Report of a Case A 74-year-old white woman was admitted on Nov 25, 1965, to the Allentown Hospital because of increasing size of both thumbs. She complained of swelling and redness of the