primary
- Breast cancer is said to be invasive when cancer cells migrate beyond the initial tumor.
- According to the National Cancer Institute, when it affects men, it is usually infiltrating ductal carcinoma.
- The course and management of the disease is similar in men and women.
It’s a rare, unknown, cancer with uncertain causes: male breast cancer. to me’National Cancer InstituteIt represents less than 1% of all cases of breast cancer diagnosed each year in France. In a research published in Breast Cancer ResearchA British team investigated the causes disease in humans. According to their findings, it could be related to infertility.
Nearly 2000 attendees
In total, scientists from the Institute of Cancer Research London conducted a 1998 survey men, residents of Wales or England, all of whom had breast cancer. Participants answered various questions, particularly about their own fertility and that of their partner’s. A total of 5.6% of them reported being infertile and 19.2% being childless.
Their data was then compared with that of 1,597 men, who make up the control group. The study authors then noted that men who had developed breast cancer were more likely to report problems with it fertilityand that the number of men without children compared to the control group. So they concluded that infertile men are twice as likely to develop invasive breast cancer as men without fertility problems.
Other possible causes were also investigated by the authors of this study. Alcohol consumption, smoking, family history of breast cancer and liver disease were taken into account, but the researchers found “There is no strong evidence that these factors influenced the results.”.
Few cases are difficult to analyze
“The causes of male breast cancer are largely unknown, in part because of its rarity and also because previous studies were small.”says Michael Jones, lead author of this study. in an interview in science and the future, notes that it took them twelve years to find enough patients to do this research. But for him it is necessary to continue work on this topic. “The evidence presented in our study suggests that the association between infertility and breast cancer needs to be confirmed by further research and that future investigations into possible underlying factors, such as hormonal imbalances, are needed.”