Male breast cancer: a multicenter study in Aragon over 27 years

Introduction: Male breast cancer accounts for 1% of all breast cancers. Its low frequency leads to a lack of awareness, resulting in significant diagnostic delays. Additionally, this limits the available evidence, which primarily uses diagnostic-therapeutic algorithms based on women. Methods: A multicenter, observational, descriptive, retrospective study was conducted in the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain, from 1995 to 2022 including men with a pathological diagnosis of breast cancer. The prevalence, clinical presentation, pathological characteristics and prognosis of this pathology in men were analyzed. Results: A total of 148 patients were included, one of the largest series available, with a prevalence of 1%. The most common clinical presentation was a palpable retroareolar mass. Invasive ductal carcinoma was the most frequent type (88.89%), and luminal B was the predominant subtype (47.76%). Surgery was the most utilized treatment; mastectomy was performed in 90.34% and AL in 46.89%. At diagnosis, 52.46% had extramammary involvement. The recurrence rate was 24.1%, and the mortality attributed to the disease was 14.6%. Conclusions: There is a high rate of metastatic involvement at diagnosis, a high percentage of mutilating surgeries, and a high number of recurrences compared to available studies on males. Additionally, a worse prognosis is observed compared to breast cancer in women, despite these tumors having a less aggressive molecular subtype. These findings highlight the importance of conducting studies focused on men to develop specific protocols. (c) 2024 AEC. Published by Elsevier Espana, S.L.U. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.