Histopathological Review of Male Breast Cancer in Sokoto, Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Male breast cancer is a rare disease that is not well characterized and accounts for <1% of breast cancer incidence and <1% of all male cancer cases. It also carries a significantly higher mortality rate when compared with the breast cancer in female patients. The notion that men could also be afflicted with breast cancer is apparently not widely perceived. The aim of this study is to evaluate the incidence of male breast cancer cases in a tertiary hospital in North-Western Nigeria. Materials and Methods: Over a 10‑year period (January 2006 to December 2015), all hematoxylin and eosin‑stained sections of biopsies from male breast clinically diagnosed as cancer (mastectomies and biopsies) were retrieved from the departmental archives and reviewed to confirm the initial diagnosis. Clinical biodata were obtained from patients’ request forms and histology register. Data obtained were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 and presented as simple frequency tables. Results: There were a total of 33 male breast cancer cases histologically diagnosed during the study period. This constituted 4.3% of all breast cancer cases in the period. The mean age was 49.7 years with standard deviation ± 17.3 years and age range of 20–99 years. The results revealed that 14 (42.4%) patients had right breast cancer, followed by left that accounted for 10 (30.3%), bilateral 5 (15.2%), and side unspecified 4 (12.1%). With respect to histologic types, 30 (90.9%) of cases seen were invasive carcinoma no special type (NST) while lobular carcinoma accounted for 2 (6.1%), and mucinous adenocarcinoma was 1 (3.0%). Conclusion: This study showed males in our environment do suffer from breast cancer albeit in a small proportion and that invasive carcinoma NST was the most predominant histological variant of male breast cancer cases in our region.