Treatment of Early/Localized/Operable Male Breast Cancer

For information about the treatments listed below, see the Treatment Option Overview section.

Treatment of early, localized, or operable breast cancer may include the following:

• Initial surgery.
• Adjuvant therapy.

Initial Surgery

Treatment for men diagnosed with breast cancer is usually modified radical mastectomy.

Breast-conserving surgery with lumpectomy followed by radiation therapy may be used for some men.

Adjuvant Therapy

Therapy given after an operation when cancer cells can no longer be seen is called adjuvant therapy. Even if the doctor removes all the cancer that can be seen at the time of the operation, the patient may be given radiation therapy, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, and/or targeted therapy after surgery, to try to kill any cancer cells that may be left.

• Node-negative: For men whose cancer is node-negative (cancer has not spread to the lymph nodes), adjuvant therapy should be considered on the same basis as for a woman with breast cancer because there is no evidence that response to therapy is different for men and women.
• Node-positive: For men whose cancer is node-positive (cancer has spread to the lymph nodes), adjuvant therapy may include the following:
  • Chemotherapy.
  • Hormone therapy with tamoxifen (to block the effect of estrogen) or less often, aromatase inhibitors (to reduce the amount of estrogen in the body).
  • Targeted therapy with a monoclonal antibody (trastuzumab or pertuzumab).

These treatments appear to increase survival in men as they do in women. The patient's response to hormone therapy depends on whether there are hormone receptors (proteins) in the tumor. Most breast cancers in men have these receptors. Hormone therapy is usually recommended for male breast cancer patients, but it can have many side effects, including hot flashes and impotence (the inability to have an erection adequate for sexual intercourse).