A recent study raises the hypothesis that male infertility increases the risk of breast cancer in men. Its conclusions are a reminder that breast cancers should not be considered exclusively female, at the risk of limiting the number of case studies in this field and leading to diagnostic delays in patients.
Although rare, breast cancer is also a disease that affects men with less than 1% of all cancers in this family according to the estimates from the National Cancer Institute (INCa). Among the known factors: age, family history of breast cancer, genetic predisposition or exposure to radiation. In one of the largest studies ever done in this field, researchers from l’Institute of Cancer Research de Londres (ICR) claim that infertile men may be twice as likely to develop breast cancer compared to those without fertility problems. Their published study in the journal Breast Cancer Research involved recruiting 1,998 men newly diagnosed with the disease in England and Wales over a 12-year period. Because male breast cancer is rare, research into the disease is usually limited to a small number of patients. However, this study involving a larger group of affected men allowed the team to show a statistically significant association between infertility and the risk of invasive breast cancer in men.
Researchers asked participants if they had biological children, if they or their partners had ever had any problems conceiving, or if they had visited a doctor or clinic for…