18 Years Experience of an Italian Breast Unit Among Male Breast Cancer: A Retrospective Observational Study

Male breast cancer has increased by approximately 26% over the past 25 years, there is a need to research specific treatment options. Currently, there is no established standard treatment which is therefore based on female disease. The purpose of this study is to analyze the clinical characteristics, survival outcomes, and the need for tailored treatment strategies in male breast cancer patients.

This is an observational, retrospective, single-center clinical study. The research involved 21 male patients who underwent surgery for breast cancer from 2003 to 2020 in our hospital. In order to strengthen the statistical value of the results obtained, the survival curves of three selected studies in the literature were compared with that obtained in the present study.

All our patients underwent total mastectomy and axillary lymph node dissection. Twenty patients were diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma, while only one patient with invasive lobular carcinoma. The 5-year survival was 71.4% with a median survival for metastatic patients of 5.7 years. A statistically significant difference was found when comparing 5-year survival with one of the other three studies (p = 0.048).

Our findings highlight the delayed clinical presentation of male breast cancer and a 5-year overall survival of 71.4%, underscoring the need for targeted screening strategies to improve early diagnosis and outcomes.The lack of knowledge of this disease at sociocultural and health level is the main reason for delay in diagnosis, a factor that strongly affects the prognosis.