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Aetiology

Last reviewed dd mmm yyyy. Last edited dd mmm yyyy

Authoring team

Aetiology of the disease is unknown but the following factors have been known to increase the risk (1):

  • oestrogen exposure/androgen insufficiency (2)
  • testicular abnormalities - undescended testes, congenital inguinal hernia, orchiectomy, orchitis
  • Klinefelter’s syndrome - the risk is 50-fold greater than in the general male population
  • obesity - due to an increase the oestrogen-testosterone ratio
  • liver cirrhosis
  • exogenous oestrogen therapy
  • benign breast conditions - history of breast trauma and nipple discharge

  • chest wall radiation exposure and other occupational factors (chronic heat exposure) (3)

  • men with a family history of breast cancer - 2.5 times the risk of developing breast cancer

  • mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 (2)
  • the association between male breast cancer and BRCA is stronger in patients with BRCA 2 mutations than in BRCA 1 mutations.
  • according to estimations around 4-40% of male breast cancer patients carry a mutation in BRCA2 and in upto 4% of patients carry BRCA 1 mutations
  • the life time risk for breast cancer in
    • a male BRCA2 mutation carrier is ~7% which is estimated to be 80-100 times higher than for the general population
    • a male BRCA1 mutation carrier is just over 1% (2)

The importance of gynecomastia as a risk factor for male breast cancer is unclear (3)
Reference:


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