Paget's disease of the male breast

Paget's disease of the breast is a malignant lesion consisting of Paget cells in the epidermis and an underlying ductal carcinoma of the breast tissue. It is estimated that perhaps 3% of female breast carcinoma cases are Paget's disease. If one estimates male breast carcinoma to be approximately 1% of the rate in the female population, then Paget's disease in men is clearly a rare clinical event. Although Paget's disease has an epidermal component, little attention has been given to this entity in the dermatologic literature. We present a case report of this disease in an elderly male patient and comment on the clinical features which should alert the physician to the presence of the malignancy.