[Male breast carcinoma: prognostic and predictive factors related to biological behavior]

The use of molecular biology and immunohistochemical techniques has led to remarkable progress in our understanding of key issues in tumor development and progression. For women with breast cancer the prognosis and modality of therapy depend on clinicopathologic features and molecular markers expression. For men with breast cancer there are very few data evaluating biological markers mainly due to the fact that male tumors are rare, the incidence being 1% of that of females. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of male breast carcinoma biological behavior analyzing similarities and differences with female breast carcinoma in order to answer a question with clinical and therapeutic implications: are female and male breast carcinomas biologically similar or are they different?