Male breast disorders in Jordan. Disease patterns and management problems

OBJECTIVE: To highlight the features and management problems of male breast disorders in an eastern country such as Jordan.

METHODS: Data regarding 33 male patients who underwent surgery for breast diseases in the Department of Surgery at Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, Jordan, between the year 1996 and 2002 were analyzed.

RESULTS: Gynecomastia (45.5%), ductal carcinoma (18.2%), and lipoma (12.1%) were the most frequent lesions. Endocrine testing when the clinical diagnosis was physiologic gynecomastia was not yielding. Many features of male breast carcinoma in Jordan (symptomatology, male to female ratio, high education rate, age, diagnostic yield of fine-needle aspiration, histological type, and estrogen receptor status) did not depart from the experience of others. Delayed presentation is evident from the fact that 57% of tumors were stage III. Loco-regional control was achieved by modified radical mastectomy. Tamoxifen was used in 5 patients, and chemotherapy in 4 patients. The patient with stage I is still disease free 6 years after the diagnosis. The 5-year survival rate for stages II and III was zero. Rare lesions (cystic hygroma, cystic mastopathy, fibroadenoma, duct papilloma, tuberculosis, periductal mastitis, and the previously unreported primary primitive neuroectodermal tumor of the breast) accounted for the rest of the group. The patient with primary primitive neuroectodermal tumor of right breast was treated by mastectomy and adjuvant chemotherapy. He remains disease free 31 months after the diagnosis.

CONCLUSION: Unawareness and the fact that male breast enlargement is considered a social stigmata are responsible for the delayed presentation. The value of fine needle aspiration cytology and mammography is not widely appreciated. The wide spectrum of potential pathologies calls for referring all patients to specialized breast units.