Male Breast Cancer: 9 Year Experience and Review in Mid-Western Ireland

Introduction: Male breast cancer (MBC) is a rare condition, which accounts for less than 1% of all breast cancer diagnoses. Because of this, there is a paucity of focussed work available and most data is derived from female breast cancer studies. Recently, there has been speculation of increased incidence, and we sought to verify this by reviewing our own experience with MBC. Methods and Materials: A retrospective analysis was designed to include patients seen at our institution from 1 st July, 2000 until 31 st July 2009, and information was derived from the patients’ records. Results: Seven (7) patients were found, with an average age of 66.6 years. All patients had discovered their lumps on selfbreast examination as their main presenting complaint, and none noted any other breast symptoms such as mastalgia, bleeding or discharge. Four (4) patients were found to have a family history for malignancy, including female breast, prostate, lung and gastric cancers and Hodgkin lymphoma. Two (2) patients were found to have been exposed to gynaecomastia-inducing agents for extended periods of time. One (1) patient had undergone chest wall irradiation for Hodgkin lymphoma 30 years prior to his diagnosis of MBC. 86% were diagnosed on histology, with 100% of these having ductal cancer, with 100% oestrogen-receptor positivity and 86% progesterone-receptor positivity. Conclusion: Patients with MBC are an uncommon within our institution. Features associated with its presentation compare to what is published within the literature.