Clinicopathological study of male breast cancer in Nigerians and a review of the literature

Abstract

Background: Breast cancer is rare in men, accounting for approximately 1% of all cases of breast carcinoma.

Objective: To evaluate the incidence, presentation, histopathological types, management and outcome of male patients with breast cancer treated at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City, Nigeria.

Methods: A 20 year (1987-2006) retrospective study of all male   patients   with   breast   cancer   was   done.   Clinic demographic data regarding age, sex, clinical information, treatment and follow up were obtained from request cards and case files. Slides were retrieved from the archives of the Department of Pathology and reviewed.

Results: Sixteen cases of male breast cancer were encountered. This comprised 18.4% of the breast lesions in males and 2.8% of all breast cancers seen in the Department during the 20 year study period. The ages of patients ranged from 35-90 years with a mean age of 64.4 years. Delay in patient presentation to physician ranged from 14-49 months. Clinically, patients presented mostly with a self-detected lump (87.5%), or ulceration (68.8%), nipple discharge (43.8%) and nipple bleeding (25.0%). Unilaterality was observed in 87.5% of cases were while 12.5% of cases were bilateral (metachronous). Invasive ductal carcinoma (81.25%) was the predominant histological type of cancer. Stage IV disease was most commonly encountered (43.8%). Eleven (68.8%) patients had modified radical mastectomy. Only 31.3% patients came for follow-up, for a median duration of 10 months.

Conclusion: Male breast cancer is rare and patients present late with advanced disease. Education needs to be intensified to increase awareness of the disease.

Keywords: Carcinoma; Male breast; Nigerian