The incidence and characteristics of male breast cancer

BACKGROUND: Male breast cancer is a rare disease, accounting for 0, 1% of all cancers in men and for 0.6% to 1% of all breast cancers. The aim of this paper is to present histopathological and clinical features of male breast cancer at the Clinic for Surgery, Clinical Hospital Centre Rijeka, Croatia, over the 14-year period. METHODS: Between 2003 and 2017 twenty-seven men underwent surgery for breast cancer at our facility. Information retreived from the patients’ records included the stage of the disease, histologic type, histologic grade, hormone receptor status of the primary tumour, and the axillary lymph node status. RESULTS: The majority of patients presented with advanced stages of the disease (stages III and IV). Grade 2 was the most frequent histologic grade. Invasive ductal carcinoma of no special type was the most common histologic type. Hormone receptor status was positive in most of the cases. Approximately half of the patients had positive axillary lymh nodes. CONCLUSIONS: Early diagnosis and treatment are critical to successful treatment of male breast cancer. Due to positive hormone receptors in most of the patients with advanced stages of male breast cancer, hormonal therapy played a critical role. Further research on larger samples will be necessary for developing new methods for diagnosing and treating breast cancer in men.