More recently, a new study by the United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has shown that men find breast cancer mostly late due to factors such as neglect and stigma.
“About half of male breast cancer may have spread at the time of diagnosis, with a survival rate of only 26 per cent for late-stage male breast cancer.
Men’s breast cancer, this embarrassing cancer!
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, while male breast cancer is indeed relatively rare but not very rare. Over the past 25 years, the incidence of breast cancer among men has increased by about 26 per cent.
According to CDC data, there are approximately 2,300 male breast cancer cases per year in the United States, accounting for about 1 per cent of all breast cancer cases, and the incidence increases with age. However, due to the large population base, men are more affected by breast cancer.
In this new study, the research team tracks in real time about 15,000 male breast cancer patients in the United States medical database for 2007-2016, which assesses the relative survival periods of one year and five years, covering five age groups (below 50, 50-59, 60-69, 70-79 and over 80).
The research team found that the survival rate for these male breast cancer patients was 96.1 per cent and 84.7 per cent for one and five years, respectively. The survival rate for early diagnosed patients was as high as 98.7 per cent in five years; however, almost one in 10 cases of male breast cancer (8.7 per cent) was diagnosed at an advanced stage, with a survival rate of only 25.9 per cent in five years.
In an interview with the American Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), Dr. Linnea Chapa (LINNEA I. CHAP M.D.), a web-based breast cancer specialist, the Director of Female Oncology at the Beverly Hills Cancer Center (BHCC) in the United States, and a clinical professor at the University of California, Los Angeles Medical School of Medicine, conducted a thematic science programme on “male breast cancer”.
In terms of the physical structure of the human body, both men and women have mammograms and are therefore at risk of breast cancer. At present, male breast cancer is not known, and the main causes are genetic factors, hormone levels, environmental factors, and lifestyle (obese, lack of exercise, alcohol).
Although it is true that men are less likely than women to have breast cancer, men are more likely to have breast cancer. Vaccination catheter cancer is the most common type of breast cancer in men.
Dr. Chapa pointed out that breast cancer was often regarded as “female cancer” and that few people realized that men also received breast cancer or that it was difficult to say. Most often, men do not expect to go to hospital until they find swelling under their nipples. As a result, male breast cancer is often not diagnosed in a timely manner, and treatment and prognosis are often less optimistic.
In addition, lymphoma transfer and tumour proliferation are more likely to occur under the nipples due to the small number of male breast tissues and the fact that the mammography is closer to the chest. Moreover, it also makes early diagnosis more difficult, often at a late stage, when cancer is likely to spread.
In terms of pathology, male breast cancer is more common in Luminal A and Luminal B than female breast cancer. Furthermore, studies have shown that male breast cancer is more likely to express estrogen (ER) or hormonal receptor than female breast cancer, and that it rarely expresses Her2, meaning that the usual HeR2 target treatment is often ineffective.
The BRCA1/2 gene mutation is a common “breast cancer gene”, and the BRCA gene also plays an important role among male patients. Researchers at the United States Centers for Disease Control stated that genetic mutation rates were higher among male breast cancer patients than among female patients.
At present, because of the limited clinical data available on male breast cancer cases, it is difficult to conduct large-scale, forward-looking and random comparative studies, and most male breast cancer treatment programmes are based on female breast cancer, mainly related to the tumour stasis and the overall condition of the patient. Male breast cancer treatments include, inter alia, surgical treatment, chemotherapy, treatment, target-oriented treatment and hormonal treatment. In cases of diversion, chemotherapy, hormonal treatment or a combination of both are generally recommended and may be considered for clinical trials.
