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Male Breast Cancer

© Lauren Parthun

Since October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I wanted to write on that subject. In this article I will also write about breast cancer, but a very uncommon type...male breast cancer.

Breast cancer can affect men as well as women. The disease appears similiar in both sexes. Because male breast cancer is so uncommon, it has been difficult for researchers to accumulate extensive data. Men tend to be somewhat older than women at the time of diagnosis, and the disease is often at a more advanced stage. When the disease is advanced, they usually receive some kind of hormone therapy, which is even more effective in men than in women. In the United States, male breast cancer accounts for 1 of every 100 cases of breast cancer.

All of the types of breast cancer seen in women can occur in men, although some are quite rare. Lobular carcinomas are very unusual, because lobules are normally absent from the male breast. Most breast cancers in men are carcinomas. The most comon type is infiltrating ductal carcinoma, which accounts for 73% of the cancers in men. The incidence of breast cancer in men, as in women, increases with age. The average age of men at diagnosis is 65.

Symptoms

A painless lump, usually discovered by the man himself, is by far the most common first symptom of male breast cancer. Typically the lump appears beneath the Areola, where breast tissue is concentrated. However, a lump is seldom the only symptom. Men are more likely than women to have nipple discharge (sometimes bloody) and signs of local spread, including nipple retraction, fixation to the skin of the underlying tissues, and skin ulceration.

Delayed Diagnosis

Many people are unaware that men can develop breast cancer, and neither men themselves nor their physicians regularly examine mens breast. When men discover signs of breast cancer, they tend to delay before seeing a physician. Breast cancer in men has often spread locally before it is diagnosed. Lacking the bulk of the typical female breast, even a small carcinoma lies close to the skin above it and the tissues of the chest wall beneath it. The cancer can more readily invade these nearby structures. The same procedures used to diagnose breast cancer in women can be used to diagnose brast cancer in men. A definitive diagnosis can be made only by biopsy.

Treatment

The treatment of male breast cancer is generally similiar to the treatment of female breast cancer. The basic therapy for primary cancer that shows no sign of distant spread is surgery. In advanced diseases, it is hormone therapy. Mastectomy or surgical removal of the breast, is the standard treatment for male breast cancer, and is used in approximately 80% of all cases. The decision to use additional chemotherapy to treat men with breast cancer must be made on an individual basis. Patterns of recurrence and metastasis are similiar in men and women. Recurrences appear, on average, within 2 years of initial treatment.

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