1 Signs and Symptoms
Metastatic cancer to the orbit occurs mainly in adults and is commonly unilateral. Symptoms tend to progress rapidly over weeks to months. Mass effect of the metastasis can cause proptosis or globe displacement, depends on its exact location in the orbit. Pain, inflammation, conjunctival chemosis and eyelid swelling, and erythema can also occur. Orbital functions may be disturbed as well resulting in restriction in eye movements, diplopia, ptosis, and compressive optic neuropathy. Presentation may vary considerably between patients and various primary cancers, and Goldberg et al. suggested to categorized them into: infiltrative (53%), mass (37%), inflammatory (5%), functional (3%), and silent (rare).
Orbital metastasis from breast cancer typically infiltrates the orbital fat and extraocular muscles. It may cause proptosis but has a unique scirrhous adenocarcinoma variant which can present as enophthalmos.
2 Differential Diagnosis
Unilateral proptosis in an adult...
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Sagiv, O., Debnam, J.M., Esmaeli, B. (2022). Metastatic Orbital Lesions: Breast Cancer. In: Ben Simon, G., Greenberg, G., Landau Prat, D. (eds) Atlas of Orbital Imaging . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62426-2_41
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