In 1995, at the age of 40, she underwent mastectomy with axillary dissection in another city. The histological report was infiltrating lobular carcinoma. The maximum diameter of the primary tumour was 3 cm (T2). Fourteen nodes were isolated from the axilla, four of which were infiltrated by the tumour; further data on hormone receptors were not available. After the operation she received complementary chemotherapy with six cycles of FEC.
In 2000 she began to suffer epigastric pain accompanied by a weight loss of more than 10 kg. In November 2000, gastroscopy revealed a tumour-like mass in the gastric body. The biopsy was reported as diffuse adenocarcinoma with signet ring cells. In January 2001, a laparotomy was performed, in which ascites and an unresectable gastric neoplasm through the stomach wall and infiltrating the head of the pancreas were found. Ascitic fluid cytology was compatible with signet ring cell invasion. He then started cytostatic treatment with chemotherapy. In December 2001, she began to suffer from back pain; bone scintigraphy showed multiple uptakes compatible with bone metastases, which were confirmed by magnetic resonance imaging. Since then she has been treated with analgesic radiotherapy and has also received various lines of chemotherapy and hormonal treatment, which she is still undergoing. The patient's prolonged survival encouraged further gastric biopsy studies which confirmed the presence of oestrogen and progesterone receptors in signet ring cells.