A 62-year-old person from Delhi was diagnosed with high-grade (stage III) locally advanced ‘Invasive Ductal Carcinoma’ (IDC), a most common type of breast cancer in men, has been successfully treated at a city hospital.
After an excisional biopsy, a sample of tissue taken from the body in order to examine it more closely, Kumar was diagnosed with Invasive Ductal Carcinoma that started growing on the milk duct and has invaded the fatty tissues on the breast outside of the duct. He was successfully treated following a staged approach to allow the patient time to tolerate therapies, said Dr Chandragouda Dodagoudar, Director - Medical Oncology at Aakash Healthcare, Dwarka.
Interestingly, subsequent genetic testing showed he has no family history of cancer or hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (HBOC) syndrome, potential risk factors cited for male breast cancer, he said.
“This high-grade (which tend to grow and spread more quickly) cancer was challenging as the patient was obese and has long-standing diabetes, which made planning and executing chemotherapy difficult. So, we adopted a staged approach to allow the patient time to tolerate therapies. In the first stage, he underwent a surgery for removing the tumour followed by eight cycles of chemotherapy, spaced once in three weeks to allow recovery. This was followed by radiation therapy that reduces the risk of recurrence of cancer after the surgery,” he added.
Dr Aashish Chaudhry, Managing Director of the hospital said “Male breast cancer is a rare disease. Most of the cases come to the fore at an advanced stage as men are not willing to accept that they can also get Breast Cancer. This case highlights how sound understanding of oncologists can help not only treat but cure advanced cancers. Men must be aware that breast cancer can happen to them even if they don't have a family history of cancer.”
Breast Cancer in male is a rare disease and the ratio of male to female breast cancer diagnosis is 1:120.