[Breast cancer in males (author's transl)]

Breast cancer rarely occurs in males, and reliable epidemiological and aetiological studies are scarce. The condition is one hundred times less frequent than in females and usually develops around the age of 60, i.e. 8 years later on average than in women. Its incidence, however, is high in patients with Klinefelter syndrome. Clinical symptoms and paraclinical data are similar to those of female breast cancer. The overall prognosis is considered as being more severe, but the difference is reduced when the results are expressed as corrected survival rate. Treatment is predominantly surgical, radiation therapy being usually reserved to cases where surgery is contraindicated or used to complement surgery. Since breast cancer is hormone-dependent, patients with advanced stage of the disease may benefit from suppressive hormonal treatment.