[Carcinoma of male breast--with special reference to noninvasive carcinoma]

Seven cases of carcinoma of male breast were reported. The mean age of them was about 65 years, 17 years older than that of female breast cancer. Six tumors out of 7 were located under the areola. By histological examination, 4 of 7 cases were proved to be noninvasive ductal carcinoma, and the others are invasive ductal carcinoma (2 : scirrhous, 1 : solid-tubular). We focused on clinicopathological features of noninvasive carcinoma. There were two points to be mentioned. One is the nipple discharge as a chief complaint, and the other is cyst formation as a macroscopic observation. These features are characteristic to noninvasive carcinoma and contribute to diagnosis. Therefore, for screening the mass of male breast, ultrasonography (U.S.) is most useful. For preoperative final diagnosis, aspiration or smear cytology is essential. In regard to postoperative survival, all of the 3 invasive cases were dead but all of the 4 noninvasive cases are alive. So the prognosis of noninvasive carcinoma of male breast does not appear to be worse than the female one. These observations indicate that the prognosis of carcinoma of male breast can be improved by early diagnosis and appropriate surgical therapy.