Atypische presentatie van borstkanker bij een man

Background

Approximately 1% of all breast cancers occur in men. With an annual incidence of 130 cases in the Netherlands, the occurrence of male breast cancer is rare.

Case description

We report the case of a 72-year-old male who was referred to a breast outpatient clinic for the evaluation of a multinodular skin lesion of the nipple. The nipple lesion was found to be an invasive carcinoma of the breast with neuroendocrine differentiation. Retrospectively, a breast abnormality could be detected on radiologic imaging 2 years prior to cancer diagnosis.

Conclusion

Breast cancer in men is associated with an increased diagnostic delay compared to women and is subsequently diagnosed at a later stage. Studies on the survival of breast cancer report worse survival in men compared to women. Health care professionals should be alerted to the presence of a malignancy when dealing with abnormalities of the male breast.

Conflict of interest and financial support: none declared.