These occurred in slightly older patients than the infiltrating ductal carcinomas and were diploid tumours. In this study 57% of the tumours were found to be aneuploid, but nearly 70?? of the invasive ductal carcinomas NOS were aneuploid. In general, the aneuploid tumours were larger, of higher average histological grade and had a higher mean S-phase value. The overall mean S-phase fraction was 7.2v0 which is similar to that found in female breast tumours in Iceland. It is concluded that the male-to-female ratio of breast carcinoma in Iceland is similar to that found in other Western countries. The age-standardised incidence has increased considerably in the last 20 years, in contrast to the rates reported from most other countries.
Papillary tumours are unusually common in Icelandic males.o 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.Carcinoma of the vestigial male breast is rare. The male-tofemale ratio of breast cancer varies geographically, being about 1% in the Western countries (Hecht and Winchester, 1994). The ratio is significantly higher in some parts of Africa, and in Blacks in the Western countries (Bhagwandeen, 1972;El-Gazayerli and Abdel-Aziz, 1963; Simon et al., 1992).In recent years, epidemiological reports on tumours of the male breast in Scandinavia (Adami et al., 1989; Ewertz et al., 1989) and in most European countries (La Vecchia et al., 1992) have been published. Iceland was not included in these studies because of the small population (a quarter of a million people). No reports on the epidemiology and histological variables of carcinoma of the male breast in Iceland have previously been published.The purpose of this work is to report on all male breast cancers diagnosed in the 40-year time period 1955-1994 in Iceland. Epidemiological data are presented with histopathological classification of the tumours, histological grading and the results of DNA-analysis by flow cytometry.Very little has been published on ploidy and S-phase fraction in tumours of the male breast to date (Gattuso et al., 1992; Hatschek et al., 1994) in contrast to the extensive literature on the subject in the female breast cancer. This report compares the histological typing, tumour grading and results of flow cytometry in male breast cancer to what has been observed in malignant breast tumours of females in Iceland.
MATERIAL AND METHODSInformation concerning male patients diagnosed with breast carcinoma in Iceland during the 40-year period 1955-1994 was obtained from the Icelandic Cancer Registry. After histological and clinical revision, malignant breast tumours were diagnosed in a total of 31 patients. All histological slides, including at least one re-cut H. and E.-stained section, were reviewed by 2 of the authors (J.G.J. and B.A.A.).All carcinomas were classified into main histologic groups according to the World Health Organisation Classification (1981). All carcinomas of the infiltrating ductal type NOS were graded according to the Bloom and Richardson method with the Nottingham/Tenows modification (Elston, 1987). Patient's age at di...
