Male Breast Cancer: Symptoms & Detection

Breast cancer is largely veiwed as a woman's disease because it is rare in men. If you ask most men about breast cancer they will answer "but only women get that!".

Of the thousands of cases of breast cancer diagnozed last year alone approximately 1,300 involve men while figures for the year 2006 from the US show that male breast cancer accounted for 1,600 new cases. Male breast cancer accounts for less and 1 per cent of all breast cancers diagnozed in Europe.

The common symptoms of breast cancer are a lump around the nipple or any other area of the breast, nipple discharge (may be bloodstained), tender or drawn-in nipple, ulcers or swelling of the breast and swelling of the lynch nodes under the arm.

The main risk factor is age. The average age at diagnosis in men in the more serious of cases is 68 years, compared to 63 years in women. Family is also a factor and up to 20 per cent of men have a first-degree relative with the disease. A mutation can be carried by some families and this is called the BRCA2 gene which is the most familiar in male breast cancer.

BRCA2 predisposes people to get breast cancer and a number of other diseases. People with Klinefelter Syndrome are also predisposed to getting breast cancer. It's an extra chromosome. Males are XY, females are XX and Klinefelters are XXY which increases the risk of getting breast or testicular cancer.
Males who carry these mutations should be aware of the risk they have in developing cancer of the breast or testicles.

Obesity and chronic liver failure disease, both which cause high oestrogen levels, excessive alcohol consumption and repeated and prolonged exposure to radiation, such as radiotherapy treatment to the chest wall, particularly when young, are high risk factors.