Male breast cancer from pacemaker pocket

Abstract

One year following implantation of a mercury zinc pulse generator under the right breast, a 75-year-old man developed an ulcerative tumor of the nipple. Initially, the process was misinterpreted as a pacemaker pocket infection, until a diagnosis of papillary adenocarcinoma was made. The patient died from generalized metastases. To our knowledge, the association of a pacemaker implant and male breast cancer has not been previously reported; the probability of this occurring by chance seems rather low.