Male Breast Carcinoma: Epidemiology, Risk Factors and Current Therapeutic Approaches

Abstract

Male breast cancer is a very rare disease with an incidence of about 0.5-1% comparing with the one of female breast cancer but relatively little is known about its cause. Treatment strategies for breast cancer in males are derived from studies performed among females. The probable reasons behind the frequent, late diagnoses presented at stages III or IV might be the lack of awareness. The rarity of the disease precludes large prospective randomized clinical trials. This study reviews male breast cancer and its risk factors, recommendations for diagnosis and the management of patients with male breast cancer.

Male Breast Cancer: a 24 Year Experience of a Tertiary Care Hospital in Pakistan

“…As with FBC, there is an absence of a strong effect of smoking on MBC. (Jamal et al, 2006;Brinton et al, 2008;Zygogianni et al, 2012;Kaushik et al, 2014) The 5 year OS for smokers in our study was 66.7% which was higher than the 44.4% in non-smokers. This result was not statistically significant though (p=0.237).…”

“…Lymph node positive MBC carried a poor prognosis as compared to node negative MBC. (Giordano et al, 2004;Zygogianni et al, 2012;Selcukbiricik et al, 2013) In our study, the 5 year OS for lymph node negative and positive patients was 66.7% and 58.3% respectively. However, this result was not statistically significant (p=0.591).…”

“…Extensive chest involvement may be the only exception where RM is preferred. (Chikaraddi et al, 2012;Zygogianni et al, 2012) Neoadjuvant treatment depends upon hormonal status of the tumor and also on the inoperable nature of the tumor. Whereas women have the incentive of having breast conserving surgery with neoadjuvant treatment, men do not.…”

“…Despite the dearth of randomized trials, adjuvant therapy has proven to improve the outcome of MBC. (Zygogianni et al, 2012;Sipetic-Grujicic et al, 2014) One prospective study used Cyclophosphamide, Methotrexate and Fluorouracil (CMF) to show a 20 year survival of 42% in 31 patients after 12 cycles. MD Anderson reported Adriamycin based chemotherapy to have a reduced risk of death as compared to CMF.…”

Cancer Awareness among University Students in Turkey

“…However, breast cancer, which is regarded as exclusive to women, can rarely be seen in men. In the United States, 1% of diagnosed breast cancer cases and 0.48% of cases in Turkey include male breast cancer patients (Anderson et al, 2010;Reiner et al, 2011;Zeren et al, 2011;Zygogianni et al, 2012).…”