Multinucleated giant cells in enlarged axillary lymph nodes

Abstract 

Routine preoperative ultrasound examination of axillary lymph nodes in patients with breast cancer will identify enlarged lymph nodes. This enlargement may be due to metastatic breast cancer or it may be due to unrelated causes. These enlarged lymph nodes are likely to be sampled by needle core biopsy and submitted for histopathology examination. This paper reports two cases where the enlargement was not related to breast cancer. In both cases multinucleated giant cells were a prominent feature of the histopathology. In one case these cells were macrophage-derived multinucleate giant cells formed as a reaction to a ruptured breast implant, in the other they were megakaryocytes in a patient with an undisclosed myeloproliferative disorder.

Keywords: axilla, breast cancer, lymph node, megakaryocytes, multinucleate giant cells