Breast cancer is the most common malignant tumor in women. In 95% of cases, it is a adenocarcinoma. Some risk factors for breast cancer are known. Detected early, breast cancer cures in 9 out of 10 cases.
What about Breast cancer in MEN?
Mammary glands exist in men but are poorly developed. Breast cancer in men is very rare and accounts for less than 1% of all breast cancers. This is in most cases an infiltrating canal carcinoma.
Some factors may increase the possibility of a man being diagnosed with breast cancer:
- Age: The risk of developing breast cancer for a man increases with age;
- The existence of breast cancer cases in a close relative, both male and female;
- Genetic predisposition: About 15% of men breast cancers are linked to a mutation inherited from the BRCA2 gene;
- Klinefelter syndrome: It is a condition due to the presence of an additional X chromosome. The onset of this syndrome is the consequence of a “genetic accident”: The child carries this syndrome while his parents are not. The total number of chromosomes (karyotype) is 47 with a formula 47, XXY, instead of 46 with a formula 46, XY. In man with this syndrome, androgen levels are low and estrogen levels are high, which increases the risk of breast cancer;
- Exposure to radiation (radiotherapy) of the thorax in the past;
- Cirrhosis of the liver: it is responsible for an increase in the rate of estrogen and a decrease in the rate of androgens.
Other risk factors are possible but not certain: gynecomastia, obesity, alcohol consumption, cryptorchidism or ablation of one or both testicles, certain occupational exposures (dust in steel mills, vapours of petrol…)
The symptoms, the evolution of the disease and the management of infiltration ductal carcinoma are substantially the same in both men and women.
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