Background
Male breast cancer (MBC) is a rare malignancy presenting only 1 % of all breast cancer. The objective of this study was to identify the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of this entity.
Methods
This is a retrospective study including 32 men diagnosed and treated for a primary breast cancer at the department of medical oncology in Sfax between 2005 and 2020. All data were collected from medical files including the age at the onset, pathological and lymph node status, immunohistochemistry and overall survival.
Results
The incidence of MBC was 1.3%. The median age of our patients was 55 years. The average tumor size was 3.9 cm. The median duration to consult was 5 months (1-12 months). Diagnosis of MBC was based on histological examination after biopsy of suspicious masses (54%) or operative samples (46%). 3 patients were metastatic at diagnosis. All patients were treated by a radical mastectomy. Lymph nodes involvement was present in 18 cases (56.2%) with capsular rupture in 52% cases. Tumor was grade II in 71.8 % of cases. The expression of hormonal receptors was founded in 100% of cases. Two patients had an overexpression of HER2 (6.2%). There was no case of triple negative MBC. The OS at 5 and 10 years was 67.8% and 30.8 % respectively. Prognostic factors were T4 (p=0.015), involved nodes (p=0.035), M+ (p=0.01), SBR III (p=0.0001) and Her2+++ (p=0.001).
Conclusion
Contrary to breast cancer in women, our study showed that MBC have positive hormone receptors in all cases. Although the overexpression of HER2 was low (8.33%) and there was no case of triple negative MBC, the overall survival was inferior to that described in the literature.