Male Breast Cancer: A Single-Center Experience

Abstract

Objective: Male breast cancer (MBC) is a rare disease, accounting for less than 1% of breast and male cancers. Because of the low incidence, most of the clinical decisions for MBC have been derived from the experience of treatment of breast cancer in females. MBC is generally detected in advanced stages due to a lack of social awareness as it occurs in breast cancer in females. In this study, it was aimed to compare our clinical experience with MBC with current literature. Methods: This study retrospectively reviewed 21 men who were diagnosed with MBC between January 2008 and January 2018 at the Department of General Surgery of Mersin University School of Medicine, Mersin, Turkey. Results: Unilateral malign breast lesions were identified in 21 male patients that 17 are primary MBC and 4 metastatic breast lesions. 15 primary MBC patients underwent primary surgical treatment, and 2 patients were directed to neoadjuvant treatment. Simple mastectomies were performed in most surgical cases. 7 patients were directly addressed to axillary lymph node dissection (ALND), and sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) was performed in 8 patients. 4 patients had tumor positivity in the settings of SLNB, and further ALND was performed subsequently in these cases. None of the patients developed local recurrence in the 24-month follow-up (range 6-96 months). Conclusion: The rarity of MBC precludes randomized clinical trials. Most of the clinical decisions for MBC have been derived from the experience of treatment of breast cancer in females. Further studies are needed to understand better MBC.