Burkitt's lymphoma presenting during lactation.

The diagnostic difficulties and treatment failures of Burkitt's lymphoma manifesting during lactation are presented. All 5 cases presented as breast swelling, mimicking mastitis carcinomatosa; those patients actively lactating had fulminant disease, fatal within a few weeks. There was widespread involvement of internal organs. The importance of early correct diagnosis was emphasized and clinicians are alerted to the possibility of Burkitt's lymphoma occurring during lactation without jaw or abdominal presentation. Whether the fulminant manifestation of Burkitt's lymphoma occurring during lactation was coincidental or not, the possibility exists that a favourable milieu for the tumour growth might have been produced or the body immune mechanism lowered.