Male Breast Cancer - An Under-recognised Disease

Male Breast Cancer is an under-recognised disease and is just as dangerous for men as it is for women.

It's rare in men but one thousand men are diagnosed yearly with having male breast cancer. Although more women are diagnosed yearly with it, the risk of a man dying with it is higher. This is because although the prognosis is the same, men tend to wait too long to seek medical help and so when diagnosed, the cancer is too advanced for successful treatment. The largest age group of men afflicted are between sixty and seventy years old.

Some Of The Male Breast Cancer Risk Factors Are:

• Exposure to radiation
• Family history
• High estrogen level cause by diseases
• Cirrhosis
• Klinefelter's syndrome
• Age
• Excessive use of Alcohol
• Excess Weight

The Main Symptoms For Male Breast Cancer Are:

• Lumps
• Changes to the nipple or breast skin
• Discharge of fluid from the nipple

Types Of Male Breast Cancer

Ducal Carcinoma in Situ or DCIS this afflicts one in ten cases this type of cancer in men. The cancer cells fill the ducts, but it doesn't invade through the walls of the duct into the fatty tissue of the breast or spread outside the breast. This type has a good curable rate with surgery.

Infiltrating or Invasive Ducal Carcinoma invades the fatty tissue of the breast through the wall of duct. Then spreads to other parts of the body. Invasive Ducal Carcinoma alone or mixed with Invasive or Situ breast cancer, afflicts 80% to 90% of male breast cancer victims.

Invasive Lobular Carcinoma or Lobular breast cancer is rare in men only afflicting about two percent. This is rare because men do not have a lobular tissue gland that produces milk in the woman's breast.

Paget Disease of the Nipple. This type starts in the breast ducts and spreads to the skin of the nipple. It made also spread to the dark area of the nipple known as the areola. The skin of the nipple usually looks crusted, scaly, and red, with areas of itching, oozing, burning, or bleeding. With the finger tips a lump may be found in the breast.

Paget disease mix with other types of breast cancer accounts for about one percent in women and a higher percentage in men. Since the man's breast is smaller than a woman's breast, this type of cancer in men starts closer to the nipple so spreading to the nipple is more likely. If no lump is found the biopsy shows Ducal Carcinoma but no Invasive Cancer the survival rate is very good.

Why Do More Men Die With Breast Cancer Than Women

Since it is rare in men, education, research, prevention, and yearly screening in men is not perform routinely like in women. Men lacking the knowledge about this type of cancer will wait too long before seeking medical advice. This delay is why more men die with it. When they seek medical help it is in its advanced stages which lowers the survival rate.

Treatment For Male Breast Cancer

Here again the smaller number of men with this type of cancer handicaps the medical profession. The lower number of men forces doctors to depend on research in women for the type of treatment to use for men.

Conclusion

After researching and writing this article I feel strongly that its time for men to become more proactive in this area by pushing for better education, research, prevention, and yearly breast screening for men after forty just like the women.

For more information on male breast cancer, visit the Male Breast Cancer website

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nimsy_M

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