Metastasis of Breast Carcinoma to the External Auditory Canal: Report of an Unusual Case and Literature Review

Abstract

We present a case of metastasis of the external auditory canal (EAC) from a primary breast carcinoma in a 53-year-old female with a review of the literature. The patient had been diagnosed with a primary carcinoma 4 years previously. The metastasis had developed recently in her left EAC and presented as a bulky, fleshy, bleeding mass. The mass was causing hearing loss on the left due to complete obstruction in the left EAC. The mass was incompletely removed with a surgical operation and histopathologically metastasis was proven. Although there are few case reports in the literature of various cancers metastasizing to the EAC, metastasis in the EAC from the breast carcinoma is exceedingly rare and only one case has been reported in the literature so far.