Breast Cancer in Men

The lifetime risk of Men to be diagnosed with breast cancer is about 1 in 833. Unfortunately, the survival rate is significantly lower in the Developing countries compared to the Developed world. Even in the US, the Men with Breast Cancer have lower survival rates than women. From our epidemiological research study, we report that the primary reason for late detection to Breast Cancer in Men in the Developing countries is Taboo and Ignorance as more than ~95% of men are not aware that Men get Breast Cancer too. Even in the US, based on our survey, we report that majority of the men are not aware that they can get Breast Cancer too. If ovarian and breast cancer runs in the family due to BRCA mutations, we focus on the women for genetic testing but ignore the men but men with BRCA mutations have much higher risk of Cancer. From our study in the developing countries, we report that men miss on the early signs and symptoms, ignore the key risk factors with preconceived notion that men do not have breasts, so the question of breast cancer is oblivious & unthinkable.

Therefore, the detection is mostly at metastatic condition leading to death. Even when detected at earlier stage globally, many challenges are faced from the treatment scenario. Not much research has been done on male breast cancer specifically, so most male breast cancer treatments have been modeled on treatments for women. But breast cancer in men has distinct biological features and treatments need to be tailored to treat them. New recommendations have been issued to include male transgenic models for pre-clinical studies and men to be included in breast cancer clinical trials so that we can do justice to the treatment management.

Author(s): Lopamudra Das Roy

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