Breast cancer is rare in men, but a disease for sure has astonished many as it is a common in women. In US about 2,140 men were diagnosed breast cancer in 2011, reported by American Cancer Society. A small amount of breast tissue is there in all of us. In male adults, this amount varies. Breast cancer is rare in men and is percentage is less than one percent. Males inherit the mutated genes from their parents, which increases the risk of this disease in them. Another risk factor is the excessive use of alcohol. High estrogen levels and obesity also makes them susceptible to breast cancer.
The disease is not only rare in males, but according to the from the National University of Singapore, men with breast cancer have a low level of death rate even though they have developed an advance stage of this disease.
Few interesting findings of the research carried out in this institute on the patients of breast cancers are as follows:
- The risk of developing breast cancer in women is 66.7 per 105 person-years
- The risk of breast cancer in men is 0.40 per 105 person-years
- The diagnosis age of women for breast cancer is 61.7 years
- The diagnosis age of men is about 69.6 years
- After analyzing the age, diagnosis year and treatment; men have a better survival rate in this disease than women
There are some additional risk factors of this disease in men including: radiation exposure and hereditary factors including BRCA genetic mutation. The high estrogen levels also increases the risk of this disease and some medicines and liver or obesity diseases expose them to this disease. Males having close relatives of females with breast cancer has a higher risk of developing breast cancer in comparison to other males. Another interesting outcome of this research showed that males suffering from Klinefelter syndrome have a higher risk of developing breast cancer.
