Two cases of uveal metastasis from breast carcinoma in men

We studied two cases of uveal metastasis from carcinoma of the breast in men. One patient was a 51-year-old man who developed ocular symptoms nine months after excision of a breast mass histologically diagnosed as an infiltrating ductal carcinoma. After the patient committed suicide, an autopsy disclosed metastatic lesions to the lungs, mediastinum, and chest wall. The second patient was a 49-year-old man who complained of ocular symptoms three years after undergoing mastectomy for breast carcinoma. One month after the onset of the ocular symptoms, his left eye was enucleated. Metastatic lesions were detected in the lungs and brain. More than one year after undergoing bilateral orchiectomy, and after whole-brain radiation therapy (4,500 rads) and chemotherapy, the patient has no neurologic symptoms. It appears that mammary carcinoma in men has a poorer prognosis than it does in women, probably because of two main factors: the advanced clinical stage of the disease when it is first detected and the more diffuse infiltrating character of the mass because of the scarcity of mammary tissue in men.