Case report, 2025
Can breast cancer spread to the bowel and cause belly pain that gets worse before menstruation?
This is extremely rare, but one woman had constipation, vomiting, and belly pain that got worse before her period for 5 months, which turned out to be breast cancer spread to her bowel.
Early or limited evidence Woman of unknown age
What they did
Doctors described one woman who had constipation and belly pain that happened in a pattern linked to her menstruation over 5 months.
What they found
The woman had breast cancer that spread to where the small and large intestine meet, causing her cyclical belly pain and constipation.
What it means for you
This presentation is extremely rare, but doctors should think of serious illness if belly symptoms follow a regular menstrual pattern. The main limit is that this is one woman's story and we don't know how rare this truly is.
5
months of symptoms
About the study
- Original title
- Premenstrual sub-occlusive episodes as initial presentation of metastatic breast cancer: a case report of a previously undescribed entity
- Authors
- Hamadeh W, Kanaan H, Husseini HE et al.
- Journal
- Discover oncology
- Year
- 2025
- Study design
- Case report
- What was tested
- None
- Open access
- Yes
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.1007/s12672-025-03595-9