In diagnosing male breast cancer, ultrasound isn’t better than mammography, study says

Ultrasound imaging apparently doesn’t provide any more information than mammography when it comes to men’s breast cancer.

A new study’s conclusion, according to an article on the Breastcancer.org website, is “that mammography should continue to be the main diagnostic tool for detecting breast cancer in men with symptoms.”

It originally had been thought ultrasound might offer additional benefits.

The study, whose findings were reported at the recent annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America, had looked at the records of 360 men above the age of 25 who’d had symptoms that included “feeling a lump, pain, and nipple discharge.”

Dr. Eric Blaschke

Dr. Eric Blaschke, one of the study’s authors, was quoted as saying, “We didn’t find that use of ultrasound in male breast cancer was useful in detecting new cancers.”

Some 2,470 men are expected to be diagnosed with breast cancer in 2017, the story noted. “For men, the lifetime risk,” according to the website, “is about 1 in 1,000.”

Risk factors for men, the site indicates, include growing older (the average age of those diagnosed is about 68), having high estrogen levels, having Klinefelter syndrome (which means having more than one X chromosome), having a strong family history of breast cancer or genetic mutations, and having been treated with radiation to the chest. 

Details about breast cancer, for women and men, can be found in “Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner’s breast cancer,” a VitalityPress book I, Woody Weingarten, aimed at male caregivers.