Morphology of male breast carcinoma in the evaluation of prognosis.

We studied a series of 44 consecutive cases of male breast carcinoma over a 14 year period in order to evaluate the clinico-pathological characteristics and the impact of some morphologic factors on prognosis. The age of the patients ranged from 38 to 84 years (mean 62 +/- 10.8). All the patients presented a painless mass, associated with nipple retraction in 13 cases (29.4%), skin ulceration in 12 cases (27.2%) and nipple discharge in 6 (13.6%). Microscopically all the tumors were infiltrating ductal carcinomas, 42 being of the NOS type. A better survival was associated with low mitotic index, T 1 tumors and absence of peritumoral lymphatic permeation. However, only these two parameters had statistical significance and were found to have predictive value on the prognosis of the disease. The degree of differentiation assessed according to Bloom and Richardson's classification showed no influence on prognosis. Post surgical radiotherapy did not seem to influence the outcome of the disease.