Male breast cancer - a single center experience.

Due to its rarity, male breast cancer remains a poorly characterized disease. The present study obtained retrospective clinicopathological data, treatment patterns and outcomes for all male patients diagnosed with breast cancer in the Oncology Department, Faculty Hospital Trenčín (Trenčín, Slovakia) over the last 20 years from January 1995 to December 2015. A total of 21 patients with male breast cancer were analyzed, with a median patient age of 65.6 years. Two patients were diagnosed with lobular invasive cancer; all others were diagnosed with cancer of a ductal origin. One patient presented with metastatic disease in the pleural cavity. The primary tumors in 8 patients were staged as pT1, whilst 6 patients were staged as pT2 and 7 as pT4. Axillary lymph node involvement was present in 11 patients (52%) and 15 patients were hormone receptor-positive (83%). All but 1 patient underwent mastectomy and surgical staging of the axilla. Adjuvant chemotherapy, radiotherapy and hormone treatment was administered in the same manner as breast cancer treatment in female patients. The median follow-up time was 4.5 years. The 5- and 10-year overall survival rates were 87 and 74%, respectively, and the estimated median disease-free survival for the same population was 9.5 years (95% confidence interval, 6.2-14.6). The survival rates reported in the present retrospective study are comparable with previously published studies. In addition, the current study reported predominant hormone-positive characteristics and rare expression of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2. However, further multi-institutional trials are required to allow for informed treatment decisions in this uncommon disease.