Male breast cancer: 6-year experience.
OBJECTIVE
Breast cancer in men is a very rare neoplasm accounting 1% of all breast cancer with an incidence ratio of 1:100 of men to women and about 1% of all malignancies in men. On the basis of the literature review the authors tried to determine the main characteristics of this rare neoplasm in terms of epidemiology, diagnosis, prognosis, treatment and survival.


METHODS
The authors report the experience of the Breast Unit of the San Giovanni Addolorata Hospital in Rome, where 4 cases of male breast cancer were observed and treated over 784 breast cancers.


RESULTS
All tumours were ductal carcinomas. The extent of disease was as follows: 3 cases with stage I and 1 case with Stage IIIB; in two cases estrogen and progesterone receptors expression was 100% and in the other two cases it was 20-80%. Median follow up was 57.5 months. At present, after 6-year follow up the three patients with stage I are in good conditions; the patient with stage III died after 27 months with metastatic disease.


CONCLUSIONS
Surgical treatment remains the gold standard in male breast cancer. The prognosis for males with breast cancer is similar to female patients on equal terms of stage of disease. Adjuvant therapy is based on retrospective studies of male breast cancer conducted over the past 20 years using the guidelines for breast cancer in women.
La Pinta
M
M
Breast Unit, San Giovanni-Addolorata Hospital, Rome. mlapinta68@hotmail.com
Fabi
A
A
Ascarelli
A
A
Ponzani
T
T
Di Carlo
V
V
Scicchitano
F
F
Saputo
S
S
Russillo
M
M
Andrich
R
R
D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis; D018567:Breast Neoplasms, Male / Q000737:chemistry / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000601:surgery*; D018270:Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast / Q000737:chemistry / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D015413:Mastectomy, Simple; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen / Q000032:analysis; D011980:Receptors, Progesterone / Q000032:analysis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012384:Rome / Q000453:epidemiology; D021701:Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy; D015996:Survival Rate; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D016217:Ultrasonography, Mammary
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen; D011980:Receptors, Progesterone