Men attending a breast cancer risk evaluation clinic.

CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium: 2008 Abstracts Abstract #1103 Background - Counselling for hereditary breast cancer risk has been mostly directed to women and their female counterparts. However, BRCA1/2 male carriers are at risk for several cancers and their motivation for counselling and follow up is mostly unknown. Material and methods - Review of individual and family records from all male pts counseled in our clinic from Jan2001-Dec2007. Results: eighty one male pts were counseled, 32 previously affected with cancer (mean age 61yrs) and 49 healthy men (mean 41 yrs). Mostly, all affected pts were refered to or invited to as probands for BRCA2 screenning. All but 2 of these accepted screening after counseling, being the concern with their offspring the main motivation for testing. With 3 exceptions all unaffected men were unvited for counselling due to the identification of BRCA2 mutations in their families: 6/49 refused or postponed genetic testing after counselling (mean age 39 yrs). All male BRCA carriers (total of 32) are BRCA2 positive: 12 index probands affected with Breast (10 cases, 3 bilateral) or prostate cancer ( 2 cases) and 20 healthy carriers under increased surveillance (yearly observations at the Breast Clinic + Dermatology and Urology). Psychosocial support is also available but only one male BRCA2 carrier, a prostate cancer survivor with previous depressive symptons, has this support regularly. Male carriers did adhere to increased surveillance and 5 neoplasias were diagnosed in 4 BRCA2 male breast cancer survivors: 3 cases of asymptomatic prostate cancer (Gleasons 9, 7 and 6 respectivly) 1 case of contralateral breast cancer and 1 case of gastric cancer. All 4 pts are alive without evidence of disease, after appropriate treatment. Conclusions: men belonging to BRCA families are at risk for several cancers and seem to adhere to genetic testing and surveillance. Guidelines for hereditary breast cancer management should be comphreensive and include orientations to counsell male individuals at risk. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2009;69(2 Suppl):Abstract nr 1103.