The Difference Between Male and Female Breast Cancer

If you search for the word ‘breast’ in the dictionary, you will find that it relates to the chest section. The reason for such a board definition is that both males and females have chest and hence breasts. Thus, both males and females can be diagnosed with breast cancer.  

In spite of outward appearances, breasts in men and women are built very much the same. Breasts in both the sexes comprise of nipples, fatty tissue, ducts, and breast cells. Both genders share some of the identified risk factors for breast cancer. Men and women may have genetic mutations in their BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes that may enhance risk. Both the genders yield the hormone estrogen, which at some levels, may improve breast cancer risk. 

Commonly, breast cancer incidence in males is far less than in women because the breast tissue in both sexes is similar. Male breast tissue is primarily fat and fibrous tissue called stroma, and they have fewer ducts and lobules. When women’s breasts enhance during adolescence, they grow working lobules and milk ducts to produce and carry milk after childbirth. Most breast cancers in females develop in those ducts and lobules. Most men have far fewer and smaller vents and may not develop lobules. Inborn gene mutations may enhance cancer risks in both sexes but are likely to affect genders differently. While BRCA modifications prominently enhance a man’s risk of breast cancer, men with those mutations significantly improve their breast cancer risk. Men with those mutations are at a higher risk of prostate cancer than breast or other cancers.     

Female generally yields more estrogen than men, which may enhance cancer risk. The prime reason for its rarity in men may be associated with their estrogen levels. Men with enlarged estrogen levels may mature a condition known as gynecomastia, in which breast tissue in males may produce or swell. Gynecomastia is not a risk factor for male breast cancer, but it needs to be distinguished for male breast cancer when discovered. Furthermore, some conditions that incline men to gynecomastia through enhanced estrogen levels may also predispose them to male breast cancer.

A Unique Set of Challenges

As with rare cancers in general, breast cancer in Men may create unprecedented challenges for those who enhance it and doctors who treat it. Treatment of breast cancer in males is typically guided by studies performed in women with breast cancer. While there are few differences in medicine, there are some additional considerations when using hormone therapy in males with breast cancer. Also, men are usually not taught to screen themselves for breast cancer, and most are unaware of the disease’s symptoms. They are owing to the professed stigmas and fear of emasculation. As a result, men usually are diagnosed with breast cancer at a later age and with cancer at a later stage. The average age of men identified with breast cancer is 68 to that of women is 62 years.  

More Facts About Male Breast Cancer

Hormone therapy, radiation therapy, targeted therapy, chemotherapy and surgery are the identical treatment for both the sexes. 

Similar type of symptoms is shared in female and male breast cancers.