An overview of male breast cancer

An overview of male breast cancer in North East India: A hospital-based study: Jagannath D Sharma, Nizara Baishya, Amal C Kataki, Chandi R Kalita



Archives of International Surgery 2018 8(3):128-131



Background: Breast cancer in males is a rare disease and accounts for <1% of all cancers in men. The objective of this study was to analyze the incidence and clinicopathological behavior of male breast cancer (MBC) at a tertiary cancer center of North East India.

Patients and Methods: The medical records of 60 histologically confirmed that MBC was retrospectively reviewed for the period from January 2010 to December 2015.

Result: MBC accounted for 1.9% of the total breast cancer cases. The median age of presentation was 50 years. Left and right breast were almost equally affected (51.6% vs 48.4%). Central quadrant involvement was found in 19 (31.7%) patients followed by 15 (25%), 11 (18.3%), 8 (13.3%), and 7 (11.7%) in upper outer, lower outer, lower inner, and upper inner quadrants, respectively. Most of the patients presented in advanced stage. About 80% (48) patients had nodal metastasis and 18.3% had distant metastasis at presentation. Hormone receptor and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)/neu was found to be positive in 53.3% and 15%, respectively. Triple negative breast cancer constituted 18.3% of cases.

Conclusion: MBC is seen at a relatively younger age in our subset of population. Late presentation with advanced disease is a common feature in our population. Feasibility of clinical trials was limited because of the rarity of the disease. But for better understanding of the clinical spectrum of this rare disease comprehensive, multi-institutional collaborative studies are warranted.