BREAST CANCER IN MEN

Breast cancer is an infrequent but serious problem in men. Men account for less than 1% of all cases of breast cancer in the United States. Estimates for 1995 are that 1400 (0.76%) of the 183,400 new cases of breast cancer in the United States occurred in men. 12 Breast cancer comprises 0.2% of all cancers in males. Approximately 240 men died of breast cancer in 1995, representing 0.5% of the expected 46,240 total deaths from breast cancer and 0.08% of cancer deaths among men. The earliest reference to breast cancer is in the Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus from Egypt, which dates from 3000 to 2500 years b.c. and appears to have referred to a man. 11 The first clinical description of a case is attributed to John of Arderne in England in the fourteenth century. 45 Thereafter breast cancer in males received no more than an occasional mention until collections of several hundred cases began to appear in the literature in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. 121 Knowledge relevant to many aspects of the disease in men is still limited. Information is based largely on retrospective analysis of data and case reports. Prolonged periods are required to collect an appreciable number of cases at treatment centers, during which changes occur in diagnostic methods, staging, treatment, and the personnel directly involved. Treatment of men has been guided largely by knowledge gained from treatment of women, whose greater numbers permit controlled therapeutic trials.