Advertisement

Screening men for breast cancer may be even more effective than for women

The study picked up 18 tumours in ever 1,000 scans - Copyright (c) 2007 Rex Features. No use without permission.
The study picked up 18 tumours in ever 1,000 scans - Copyright (c) 2007 Rex Features. No use without permission.

Screening men for breast cancer may be even more effective than for women after testing picked up nearly four times the rate of tumours.

Breast cancer in men is rare, with around 1.5 cases for every 100,000 men in Britain, equating to 390 men diagnosed each year compared to 54,800 cases in women.

But around one in 1000 men carry gene mutations that put them at greater risk.

Now a study has shown that when 1,869 high risk men were screened over 12 years, cancer was detected in 18 of every 1,000 exams, compared to five in 1,000 for women of both high and average risk.

Cancers in men were detected at an early stage, before they had spread to the lymph nodes, improving the prognosis for survival.

There are currently no screening programmes for men in high-risk groups such as those who have a personal history of the disease, breast-cancer-associated genetic mutations or family members who had breast cancer.

As a result, men diagnosed with breast cancer tend to have worse outcomes than women.

“Mammographic screening has helped improve the prognosis for women with breast cancer,” said study leader Dr Yiming Gao, from the Department of Radiology at New York University.

“But men don't have any formalized screening guidelines, so they are more likely to be diagnosed at a more advanced stage and often don't do as well as women.

“These results show that it is possible to detect male breast cancer early. We've shown that male breast cancer doesn't have to be diagnosed only when symptomatic.”

Breast screening tends to be more effective in men because they have a less fibroglandular tissue that can mask tumours in women.

The research was published in the journal Radiology.