Diagnoses and Therapy of Occult Breast Cancer: A Systematic Review

Occult breast cancer (OBC) is a unique type of breast cancer that initially presents with metastasis to the axillary lymph nodes or other metastatic carcinoma, while no breast mass is palpable by finger examination and simultaneously undetectable by usual radiography. The morbidity of OBC is quite low, less than 1% among all types of breast cancers. However, OBC has only been described in case reports and retrospective studies with small samples. Hence, there is no consensus on a therapy due to lack of high quality randomized clinical trials. The aim of the present study was to review the literature from China and the PubMed/Medline database published prior to July, 2015. Key findings in the diagnosis and therapy of OBC are discussed and reviewed.