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By E.J. Mundell<\/b>
HealthDay Reporter<\/i><\/p>\n
THURSDAY, Oct. 15, 2020 (HealthDay News)<\/p>\n
Breast cancer in men<\/a> is rare. But because it’s not often suspected in men, diagnosis often comes only after a tumor<\/a> has begun to spread throughout the body, new research shows.<\/p>\n “Approximately one-half of males with breast cancer<\/a> received a diagnosis after it had already spread,” either to nearby or distant tissues, said a team of researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a>.<\/p>\n Late diagnosis can be lethal: Overall, five-year survival with male breast cancer<\/a> diagnosed early was nearly 99%, but it dropped to about 26% for men whose tumors had already spread to “distant” sites upon diagnosis.<\/p>\n Nearly one in every 10 cases of male breast cancer<\/a> (8.7%) were diagnosed at a late stage, the CDC team found.<\/p>\n “Men tend to get diagnosed later because they and their primary care physicians are not looking for breast cancer<\/a>,” explained Dr. Alice Police, who directs breast surgery at Northwell Health Cancer<\/a> Institute in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y.<\/p>\n The new study “encourages primary care physicians to question men about breast lumps<\/a> and family history [of breast cancer<\/a>],” added Police, who wasn’t involved in the research.<\/p>\n Still, male breast cancers<\/a> remain rare: According to the CDC, about 2,300 cases — or 1% of the total breast cancer<\/a> burden in the United States — occur in men. Risk rises with age, “and compared with women, men receive diagnoses later in life and often at a later stage of disease,” said the team led by Taylor Ellington, of the CDC’s Division of Cancer Prevention<\/a> and Control.<\/p>\n Ellington and colleagues used U.S. health data to track outcomes for nearly 15,000 men diagnosed with breast cancer<\/a> between 2007 and 2016.<\/p>\n The researchers found that, if spotted early, these cancers<\/a> are highly curable, with nearly all men diagnosed with a localized tumor<\/a> surviving for at least five years.<\/p>\n But cancers that had spread offered a much more dire prognosis, and minority males were more likely to get diagnosed at a later stage. Overall, just over 12% of Black men with breast cancer<\/a> were diagnosed after the tumor had spread to a distant site, compared to just over 8% of white men and about 7% of Hispanic men.<\/p>\n Timely and aggressive treatment seemed key to long-term survival, too. “The 5-year overall survival among males with breast cancer<\/a> was worse for those who did not receive any treatment or who received primary radiation therapy<\/a> [only] than it was for those who received any type of mastectomy<\/a>,” Ellington’s group reported.<\/p>\n The signs of breast cancer in men<\/a> aren’t different from those in women. These symptoms can “include a painless lump or thickening in breast tissue; skin dimpling, puckering, thickening, redness or scaling; and nipple discharge<\/a>, ulceration, or retraction,” according to the study authors.<\/p>\n Also, family history is key since the same genes that can raise breast cancer<\/a> risks in women — BRCA1<\/a> and BRCA2<\/a> — work similarly in men.<\/p>\n Police said, “We know that men with breast cancer<\/a> have a higher rate of genetic mutations than women, and therefore there is an opportunity to identify these individuals, which may result in earlier stage at diagnosis.”<\/p>\n According to Ellington’s team, “Routinely discussing family health history with patients might help health care providers identify men who could be at increased risk.” Once a worrisome family history is established, breast self-exams<\/a> (beginning at the age of 35) should be encouraged and these men should also “undergo counseling and testing for genetic mutations,” the authors said.<\/p>\n And Police added that there’s one subgroup who might face special risks.<\/p>\n “Transgender females [people who have transitioned from male to female gender] have a higher risk for breast cancer<\/a> than cisgender males,” she said, “while transgender males have a lower risk of breast cancer than cisgender females. This seems consistent with what we know about hormonal changes in this group of individuals.”<\/p>\n The study was published in the Oct. 16 issue of the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report<\/i>.<\/p>\n ![\"MedicalNews\"](\"https:\/\/images.medicinenet.com\/images\/HealthDay\/healthday.png\")
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