Male breast cancer is rare: an initial presentation may be as an abscess

Abstract

SummaryBreast cancer in men is rare. Breast cancer presenting initially as an abscess has been described only a handful of times in the literature. We present the first described case of invasive adenocarcinoma presenting as an abscess in a man. An 80-year-old diabetic man presented with symptoms typical of a breast abscess. The abscess failed to respond to percutaneous therapy and excision of breast abscess was performed. Histology revealed an invasive carcinoma. He went on to have a mastectomy. Histology should be obtained from breast abscesses not resolving within 2 months of initial percutaneous therapy. Histology could be obtained by ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration (FNA), core or vacuum assisted biopsy, or by formal incision and drainage.

An unusual case of breast abscess in a male patient

“…Malignant pathologies should always be part of the differential diagnosis. Furthermore, breast cancer presenting initially as an abscess has been described a handful of times in the literature [6]. Therefore, a follow up US after resolution of the abscess is important as was recommended to our patient.…”

A subareolar breast abscess in a man: A case report and literature review

“… 2 , 4 Ventham and Hussien reported an unusual case of breast cancer in a man initially presenting with a breast abscess. 16 It was recommended that a biopsy specimen be obtained from the cavity wall if the abscess does not improve within 2 months of the initial percutaneous treatment. 16 …”

“… 16 It was recommended that a biopsy specimen be obtained from the cavity wall if the abscess does not improve within 2 months of the initial percutaneous treatment. 16 …”

Kaposi Sarcoma with Abscessing Clinicopathologic Morphology

“…The cytokines and chemokines in neutrophil granules may recruit additional cells and are capable of effecting protumoral and anti-tumoral activity (Table 2). TANs have been identified in hematological (Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin anaplastic lymphomas [37,38], plasmacytoma [39], histiocytic sarcoma [40]), epithelial (esophageal [41], gastric [42], pancreaticobiliary [43,44], lung [45], head and neck squamous [36], breast [46,50], renal [47], urinary bladder carcinomas [48]) and germ cell [49] malignancies. In some settings, the neutrophilic influx into tumors has been described as 'pyogenic' [37], 'suppurative' [60] or an 'abscess' [38][39][40]46] in clinical and histopathological presentations.…”

“…The possible pathogenetic mechanisms for the intra-tumoral neutrophilic influx are categorized into those related to local, systemic HAART-related [32][33][34][35] and systemic HAART-unrelated [36,37] mechanisms (Table 2), the latter based on responses caused by tumor-associated neutrophils (TANs) in a wide range of cancers [38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50]. In this study, the local mechanisms for intra-tumoral suppuration include origin of the suppurative component from acute folliculitis in hair-bearing skin, post-traumatic and foreign body reactions, entrapment of superficial acute inflammatory exudate and underlying osteitis.…”