Histology of Male Breast Lesions. Series of Cases and Literature Review.

Background: Breast carcinoma is the most important cause of death in women's oncologic pathology worldwide. Due to its high frequency, important advances in diagnostic and management of this entity were made. Because of its rarity (only 0.5-1% in all breast cancers), little is known about male breast cancer, and no specific male standardised protocol was made, treatment and follow-up being adopted from women breast cancer guidelines. We consider that this entity, with its hormone specific profile, is worth being considered for further studies, taking into account that male breast cancer has a far worse prognostic than female breast cancer.

Methods: We present our four-year experience with male breast lesions in a retrospective review study, including gynecomastia and breast carcinoma cases.

Results: We identified 17 male breast lesions, 11 of them with a diagnosis of gynaecomastia, the rest being breast carcinomas. Four malignant lesions were encountered in the 5th, 6th and 7th decade, with two of them in young adults (35 and 40 years old). In a single case, two different histotypes of breast carcinoma were found. All of them were G2, with tumoral stages varying between IB to IV. Androgen receptors were expressed in each case, in different percentages.

Conclusion: Male breast carcinoma is a rare entity with a poor prognosis, a diffuse and profound invasion of adjacent structures, and a high expression of hormone receptors, and with no histologic relation to gynaecomastia, considering that no associated benign lesions were found.