Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Mar;13(1):16-33.
doi: 10.1177/19253621231157504. Epub 2023 Mar 30.

Prevalence of Imaging Detected Silent Male Breast Cancer in Autopsy Specimens: Study of the Disease Held by Image-Guided Biopsies

Zacharoula Sidiropoulou, Ana Paula Vasconcelos, Cristiana Couceiro, Carlos Dos Santos, Ana Virginia Araújo, Inês Alegre, Claudia Santos, Filipa Costa, Diogo Cardoso, Vasco Cardoso, Rita Sampaio, Fátima Cardoso, Pere Gascon

Prevalence of Imaging Detected Silent Male Breast Cancer in Autopsy Specimens: Study of the Disease Held by Image-Guided Biopsies

Zacharoula Sidiropoulou et al. Acad Forensic Pathol. 2023 Mar.

Abstract

Introduction: Regarding male breast cancer, a rare disease comprising ∼1% of breast cancers, data are generally scant. The present study aimed to quantify the imaging detected breast cancer in male gender corpses, determining in this way the prevalence of silent breast cancer in male gender.

Methodology: The population target has been male corpses without clinical expression of breast cancer. Seventy-four male corpses have been submitted to bilateral subcutaneous radical mastectomy. Samples have been submitted to echography and mammography imaging and every lesion superior to BI-RADS 4a has been excised.

Results: One excisional biopsy has been performed and no case of breast cancer has been identified.

Discussion: Our findings suggest that screening of the general population for male breast cancer is not necessary.

Keywords: Autopsy and cancer; Forensic pathology; Silent male breast cancer.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors, reviewers, editors, and publication staff do not report any relevant conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1:
Figure 1:
Left male breast sample.
Figure 2:
Figure 2:
Sample’s mammogram.
Figure 3:
Figure 3:
Age distribution of the male corpses. Age groups are presented on x-axis while y-axis denotes the number of corpses.
Figure 4:
Figure 4:
Autopsy findings of the cases. The x-axis presents the causes of death, while the y-axis shows the number of cases in each cause of death category.
Figure 5:
Figure 5:
Body mass index (BMI) and mean tissue weight/cadaver. X-axis presents BMI values versus tissue weight per cadaver on the y-axis. There appeared to be no relationship between these two traits.
Figure 6:
Figure 6:
Body mass index (BMI) and total breast volume (TBV). A correlation index of 0.176279 was noticed between the two parameters.
Figure 7:
Figure 7:
Body mass index (BMI) and breast density. Red line denotes BMI values, while blue line shows density. A negative correlation index of −0.13 was noticed between the two traits.
Figure 8:
Figure 8:
Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) classification of the samples.
Figure 9:
Figure 9:
Portuguese MBC data incidence and mortality.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Martins M, Aparício E. Survival Analysis of Male Breast Carcinoma. Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisbon, Portugal; 2013.
    1. Bhathal PS, Brown RW, Lesueur GC, Russell IS. Frequency of benign and malignant breast lesions in 207 consecutive autopsies in Australian women. Br J Cancer. 1985;51(2):271–278. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bartow SA, Pathak DR, Black WC, et al.Prevalence of benign, atypical, and malignant breast lesions in populations at different risk for breast cancer. A forensic autopsy study. Cancer. 1987;60(11):2751–2760. - PubMed
    1. Basham VM, Lipscombe JM, Ward JM. BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations in a population-based study of male breast. Breast Cancer Res. 2002;4(1):R2. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Nielsen M, Thomsen JL, Primdahl S, et al.Breast cancer and atypia among young and middle-aged women: a study of 110 medicolegal autopsies. Br J Cancer. 1987;56(6):814–819. - PMC - PubMed