Male breast cancer in Hong Kong: 15-year experience from a tertiary institution

Abstract

© 2015 Hong Kong College of Radiologists. Objective: Male breast cancer (MBC) is a rare disease entity and few data are available for the Chinese population. This study aimed to report MBC data from a single institution in Hong Kong to supplement existing evidence of this disease in our local population. Methods: Patients with histologically confirmed MBC treated between July 1997 and February 2012 were retrospectively identified from an institutional patient database. Clinical, pathological, treatment, and survival data were collected and subsequently analysed. Results: Within the captioned period, 52 cases of MBC were identified. The median age was 63 years, with evenly distributed tumour laterality. The majority of patients had invasive ductal carcinoma (84.6%), most of which were histologically grade II (50.0%). Almost all patients demonstrated hormone receptor positivity (oestrogen receptor-positive 98.0%, progesterone receptor-positive 96.0%), and HER2 amplification rate was 25.0%. Patients tended to present at an early stage of disease: approximately 85% presented as a T1 or T2 tumour, and 56.1 % had axillary nodal involvement. Surgery with curative intent was performed in 48 patients, with 13 (27.1 %) received adjuvant chemotherapy, and 35 (72.9%) underwent adjuvant radiotherapy. Almost all hormone receptor-positive patients received adjuvant tamoxifen. The median time to tamoxifen discontinuation was 60 months (range, 2-61 months). Discontinuation rate before 60 months was 15.9%. For those who underwent radical surgery, none developed loco-regional recurrence, and 5- and 10-year disease-free survival was 89.6% and 85.1%, respectively. The median overall survival for the entire population was 14.3 years. Conclusion: Our single-institutional data indicate that a good long-term survival outcome can be achieved in MBC following a treatment protocol similar to that established for females with breast cancer. Prospective data will be helpfid to further evaluate optimal treatment strategies as well as treatment tolerance for MBC in the Asian population.