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Review
. 2024 Jan-Dec:23:15330338241261836.
doi: 10.1177/15330338241261836.

Male Breast Cancer: Current Scenario and Future Perspectives

Anitha Chidambaram  1 , Rajkumar Prabhakaran  2 , Sivabalan Sivasamy  2 , Thanigaivelan Kanagasabai  3 , Malarvili Thekkumalai  4 , Ankit Singh  5 , Mayurika S Tyagi  6 , Sivanesan Dhandayuthapani  2
Affiliations
Review

Male Breast Cancer: Current Scenario and Future Perspectives

Anitha Chidambaram et al. Technol Cancer Res Treat. 2024 Jan-Dec.

Abstract

Male breast cancer (MBC), one of the rare types of cancer among men where the global incidence rate is 1.8% of all breast cancers cases with a yearly increase in a pace of 1.1%. Since the last 10 years, the incidence has been increased from 7.2% to 10.3% and the mortality rate was decreased from 11% to 3.8%. Nevertheless, the rate of diagnoses has been expected to be around 2.6% in the near future, still there is a great lack in studies to characterize the MBC including the developed countries. Based on our search, it is evidenced from the literature that the number of risk factors for the cause of MBC are significant, which includes the increase in age, family genetic history, mutations in specific genes due to various environmental impacts, hormonal imbalance and unregulated expression receptors for specific hormones of high levels of estrogen or androgen receptors compared to females. MBCs are broadly classified into ductal and lobular carcinomas with further sub-types, with some of the symptoms including a lump or swelling in the breast, redness of flaky skin in the breast, irritation and nipple discharge that is similar to the female breast cancer (FBC). The most common diagnostic tools currently in use are the ultrasound guided sonography, mammography, and biopsies. Treatment modalities for MBC include surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, hormonal therapy, and targeted therapies. However, the guidelines followed for the diagnosis and treatment modalities of MBC are mostly based on FBC that is due to the lack of prospective studies related to MBC. However, there are distinct clinical and molecular features of MBC, it is a need to develop different clinical methods with more multinational approaches to help oncologist to improve care for MBC patients.

Keywords: diagnosis of MBC; epidemiology; male breast cancer; risk factors; treatment modalities.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Incidence and 5-year survival rate of MBC in the last 20 years.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Risk factors of MBC.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Protein–protein interaction of all 20 proteins in MBC using STRING.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Treatment modalities for the MBC patients.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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