Bowen’s Disease of the Nipple and Areola: Case Report and Literature Review

Abstract

Introduction

Bowen’s disease (BD) commonly occurs in sites of chronic sunlight exposure such as head, neck and extremities. It rarely distributes on the nipple and areola.

Case Presentation

A 59-year-old female presented with crusted plaque on the right breast for over 1 month. Physical examination found an asymptomatic plaque (5 cm × 5 cm) with irregular shape on the right breast. Histopathological examination suggested irregularly acanthotic epidermis and atypical epidermal cells. Dermis showed inflammatory cell infiltration. Immunohistochemical staining showed negative staining for cytokeratin 7 and cytokeratin 20, and positive staining for Ki67 (60%). The mass was excised and no recurrence occurred in the follow-up. Additionally, we reviewed the literature about BD of the breast and summarized the clinical manifestations, histological features, and treatment options.

Conclusion

We reported a rare BD case involving nipple and areola. Wide local excision and complete nipple excision are effective for patients with BD of the nipple and areola.

Keywords:

• Bowen’s disease
• breast
• nipple
• case report

Ethics Approval and Informed Consent

This study was performed according to the convention of the Declaration of Helsinki. This study protocol was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of the Second Hospital of Jilin University [Approval No.: 2022-117]. Written informed consent was obtained from the patient.

Consent for Publication

Written informed consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this case report and any accompanying images.

Author Contributions

All authors made a significant contribution to the work reported, whether that is in the conception, study design, execution, acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation, or in all these areas; took part in drafting, revising or critically reviewing the article; gave final approval of the version to be published; have agreed on the journal to which the article has been submitted and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Disclosure

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Jilin Provincial Science and Technology Development Project [Grant No.: 20200201577JC].