Male breast cancer in Iceland

• Main Authors: Jonasson, J G, Agnarsson, B A, Thorlacius, S, Eyfjord, J E, Tulinius, H
• Other Authors: Department of Pathology, University Hospital, Reykjavik, Iceland.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: John Wiley & Sons Inc 2010
• Subjects: Aged; 80 and over; Breast Neoplasms; Male; DNA; Neoplasm; Humans; Iceland; Middle Aged; Neoplasm Staging; S Phase; Survival Rate
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2336/112578; https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1097-0215(19960208)65:4<446::AID-IJC9>3.0.CO;2-X

To access publisher full text version of this article. Please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field All malignant tumours of the male breast diagnosed in Iceland during the 40-year period 1955-1994 were studied with regard to histological classification, tumour grading and flow cytometric analysis. Of 31 malignant tumours diagnosed, 29 were primary breast carcinomas. Male breast carcinoma constitutes 1% of all breast malignancies in Iceland and 0.25% of all malignant tumours in males. About 80% of the male breast carcinomas were diagnosed during the latter half of the study period. The mean age of the patients was 66.3 years and the left-to-right ratio was 1.9:1.0. Right-sided tumours appeared to be more aggressive. The mean tumour size was 2.6 cm. The vast majority of the carcinomas (79%) were of the infiltrating ductal type. Of these 21.7% were grade I, 43.5% were grade II and 34.8% grade III. Papillary carcinomas made up 17% of the total. These occurred in slightly older patients than the infiltrating ductal carcinomas and were diploid tumours. In this study 57% of the tumours were found to be aneuploid, but nearly 70% of the invasive ductal carcinomas NOS were aneuploid. In general, the aneuploid tumours were larger, of higher average histological grade and had a higher mean S-phase value. The overall mean S-phase fraction was 7.2% which is similar to that found in female breast tumours in Iceland. It is concluded that male-to-female ratio of breast carcinoma in Iceland is similar to that found in other Western countries. The age-standardised incidence has increased considerably in the last 20 years, in contrast to the rates reported from most other countries. Papillary tumours are unusually common in Icelandic males.