Male Breast Cancer Treatment Options

The treatment of male breast cancer is generally similar to the treatment of female breast cancer. The basic therapy for primary cancer that shows no signs of distant spread is surgery. In advanced disease, it is hormonal therapy.

Surgery

A mastectomy, which is the surgical removal of the breast, is the standard treatment for male breast cancer, and is used in approximately 80 percent of all cases. Radical mastectomy is used most frequently, although in men a skin graft is often needed to close the wound. Simple mastectomy has been used when prognosis is good, for patients with very limited disease.

Radiation

Primary radiation therapy has sometimes been used to treat men with Stage I cancer who were not otherwise strong enough to tolerate anesthesia and surgery. More often radiotherapy alone has been used to relieve symptoms in patients with disease too advanced for potentially curative surgery.

Adjuvant Chemotherapy

The decision to use adjuvant chemotherapy to treat men with breast cancer must be made on an individual basis. In women, such prophylactic systemic therapy has apparently benefited patients who have no signs of distant metastasis but who have positive axillary lymph nodes.

The 24-hour Y-ME National Breast Cancer Hotline can provide you with information about male breast cancer, and help address your concerns. Through the Match Program you can be put in touch with a man who has survived male breast cancer. Call 1-800-221-2141 to reach the 24-hour Hotline.