Breast Cancer is not a disease that you just associate with women, men can be affected by this type of illness too.  And it is more common than you think.

The female breast is comprised mainly from “Lobules” which are milk-producing glands in women. The breast is also made from ducts, which are very small tubes that allow the milk to flow from the lobules through to the nipple. There is a fatty tissue called Stroma that surrounds everything including the ducts and blood vessels.

When going through puberty at around the age of 13-14, the male and female child still share a similar amount of breast tissues and ducts around the nipple area. When a female begins to ovulate, the ducts begin to grow and the breast starts to form. However, in a male, hormones cause the milk ducts to stop growing, although they are still there.

Due to the fact that the breast tissue is actually still present in males, the chance of the cells becoming cancerous is still possible but due to the lower number of cells, ducts and lobules, the number of these occurrences is less than in women.

There are several types of breast cancer in men and they present themselves in different ways. This type of cancer in men is almost always associated with a lump or growth that can be felt.

Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS)

This type of cancer affects the ducts inside the breast area but does not carry through to the outside wall or fatty tissues surrounding the area. This only affects 10% of males with diagnosed breast cancer and can usually be removed using a simple surgery technique.

Infiltrating or invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC)

This kind the most commonly found breast cancer in men and is what you may consider to be “normal cancer” where the cancerous cells in the ducts erupt through the fatty cells and cause a lump or growth to appear. A small, physical growth can be felt by the hand and may grow over time. In males, due to the smaller and lower number of milk ducts, the appearance of these growths usually occur near to the nipple.

Infiltrating or invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC)

Men do not have very much lobular tissue compared to women and therefore this type of breast cancer in men is very rare. The symptoms present themselves as the same as IDC. Lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS) When LCIS is infecting the male breast, the abnormal cells form inside the lobules. The cells do not invade in to the fatty tissue or spread away from the breast area. As with ILC, due to men not having many Lobules, this kind of cancer is rare in men.

Paget disease

This type of male breast cancer is also quite common and only affects the nipple itself. The skin of the nipple becomes scaly, sore and inflamed and a small lump may be felt underneath. The nipple may also weep or bleed and the symptoms can spread to the areola area too. This kind of cancer may cause itchyness and the affected area will be painful to touch.

The treatment of breast cancer in men varies as does any other form of cancer, regardless of the sex of the person it has infected. As stated earlier, male breast cancer is less common than female breast cancer, around 1 in 1000 men will suffer from this disease compared to women. The most recent statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that:

• in 2005 186,467 women and 1,764 men were diagnosed with breast cancer.
• 41,116 women and 375 men died from breast cancer.

This shows that the numbers of infections compare to women are low, but the survival rates are similar - around 21-22% These statistics prove that although the numbers are much lower, there is a possibility than men will suffer from breast cancer too.

Men who have female members of their family who have had breast cancer may be at a higher risk, as are men who have been exposed to radiation. Male breast cancer is also associated to inherited gene mutations that could have been passed down through their family to them.

The best advice for treatment and diagnosis of this disease is to visit your doctor as soon as possible if you notice any changes in the male breast. There are other symptoms and conditions that can cause hardness of the breast tissue or nipple that may not be related to cancer - but get it checked out as soon as possible.