Breast Cancer in Men: A Single Center Experience Over a Period of 22 years

Male breast cancer (MBC) is a rare disease that is poorly understood. Treatment protocols are widely extrapolated from breast cancer in women.

To review the experience with MBC of a single center in Israel over a period of 22 years.

This single center retrospective study evaluated all patients diagnosed with MBC over a period of 22 years (1993-2015). Data were extracted from patient medical charts and included demographics, clinical, surgical, and oncological outcomes.

The study comprised 49 patients. Mean age at diagnosis was 64.1 ± 13.5 years. The majority were diagnosed at early stages (1A-2A) (54.4%), 30.6% were stage 3B mostly due to direct skin and nipple involvement, and 59.2% of the patients had node negative disease. All of the patients were diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma and 30.6% had concomitant ductal carcinoma in situ. Estrogen receptor (ER) status was predominantly positive and luminal B (HER2-) was the most common subtype. Of the patients, 18.4% were BRCA carriers. The majority of patients underwent mastectomy. Radiotherapy was delivered to 46.9% and hormonal therapy to 89.8%. Chemotherapy was administered to 42.9%. Overall survival was 79.6% with a median survival of 60.1 (2-178) months; 5- and 10-year survival was 93.9% and 79.6%, respectively. Progesterone receptor (PR)-negative patients had a significantly improved overall survival.

MBC has increasing incidence. PR-negative status was associated with better overall survival and disease-free interval. Indications to radiotherapy and hormonal therapy need standardization and will benefit from prospective randomized control trials.