2014年7月10日讯 /生物谷BIOON/--虽然乳腺癌在男性身上发生是罕见的，但男性确实也可能会患上乳腺癌，并且乳腺癌往往是在男性的较晚期年龄段被诊断出，男性被诊断出乳腺癌的年龄阶段晚于女性。
每年在美国大约有2000例男性乳腺癌被诊断，大约500人死于这种疾病。乳腺癌可以发生在任何年龄段，但男性乳腺癌最常见的诊断年龄段在60到70岁，比女性乳腺癌诊断年龄段晚5到10年。
FDA肿瘤内科和乳腺癌科学家Tatiana Prowell博士说：男性乳腺癌的诊断通常是在晚期年龄阶段，晚于女性。由于男人乳房小，即使看到一个疙瘩，男性也不认为乳房肿块会是癌症，而大多数女性一旦觉得乳房有肿块，会立即作最坏的打算。
由于男性乳腺癌病例占所有乳腺癌病例的1％，因此很少有研究针对男性乳腺癌的治疗。在历史上，男性被排除在乳腺癌临床试验外，现在我们正在积极鼓励制药公司将男性纳入到所有乳腺癌的临床试验中，除非有一个有效的科学理由证明不需要这样做。
男性乳腺癌临床试验的数量仍然很小，因为男性乳腺癌是一种罕见的疾病，但任何相关信息将帮助男性面对这种疾病。
大多数男性是否患乳腺癌的初步判断都可以通过触摸来检测无痛肿块，但这种疾病通常不会被诊断出，直到出现肿块疼痛。
详细英文报导：
Men develop breast cancer, too
While rare, breast cancer does occur in men and is often diagnosed at a later age and stage than in women, experts say.
Each year in the United States, about 2,000 cases of male breast cancer are diagnosed and about 500 men die from the disease. It can strike at any age, but is most often diagnosed among men at ages 60 to 70, which is five to 10 years later than in women.
Breast cancer in men is typically diagnosed at a later age and stage than in women because men don't believe they're at risk for the disease, said Dr. Tatiana Prowell, a medical oncologist and breast cancer scientific lead at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's office of hematology and oncology products.
"You'd think that because men have smaller breasts they would notice a lump instantly. But men don't expect a breast lump to be cancer, whereas most women who feel a breast lump immediately assume the worst," she said in an FDA news release.
Because breast cancer in men accounts for only 1 percent of all breast cancer cases, there is little research into treatments for men with the disease.
"We tend to treat men the same way we treat women," Prowell said.
"Men have historically been excluded from breast cancer trials," she added. "We are actively encouraging drug companies to include men in all breast cancer trials unless there is a valid scientific reason not to. The number of men in breast cancer trials will still be small because male breast cancer is a rare condition, but any information to help men facing this disease is better than none."
Most men with breast cancer have painless lumps that can be detected by touch, but the disease usually isn't diagnosed until they develop soreness, she said.
