Doctors and patients seek to make visible a tumor that, although it represents 1.5% of the total cases of breast cancer, must be known so that, in the event of any symptom, the man urgently goes to the consultation
invisible. This is how men with breast cancer feel and this is how they exposed it this Friday at an event dedicated to a tumor in men what is considered typically feminine. An illness that, according to the experts, it is necessary to stop approaching in the same way what is done in the woman. There is a lack of research supporting the potential of treatments available and the diagnosis of the disease is made when it is already advanced. The reason: the lack of information about the possibility that a man can also suffer from breast cancer.
Health, patient and pharmaceutical associations have attended this Friday in Madrid the meeting ‘Invisibles 23’, organized by the Association of Patients with Male Breast Cancer (INVI). In the event it was revealed that breast tumors in men are usually detected in advanced stages. Dr. Ignacio Moncada, president of the Spanish Association of Andrology, Sexual and Reproductive Medicine (ASESA), has detailed that they come to the consultation when “they are already large and disseminated.”
make it visible
The objective of doctors and patients is to make visible a tumor that, although it represents 1.5% of the total cases of breast cancer, consider it essential to make known. Diagnoses are later “because importance is not given, not aware of it and that is why they go to the doctor when the tumors already have lymph node involvementwith a worse prognosis”, explained doctor Noelia Martínez, Medical oncologist at the Ramón y Cajal University Hospital in Madrid and member of the board of directors of the GEICAM Breast Cancer Research Group.
The oncologist adds that it has also been seen that the genetic component is greater than in female breast cancer, in which it usually occurs in 5% of cases, compared to about 20% in men. “All males should be referred with family history to the Genetic Counseling units to carry out the study both on the patient and, if it is positive, as well as on the family, because it is something heritable”, he assured.
Clinical trials in men
From the patients’ point of view, Màrius Soler, president and founder of INVI, has advocated increasing awareness of the disease in men. Also because it increases the number of clinical trials, as well as men who participate in studies. INVI, founded in 2018, is the first association of patients with breast cancer masculine in Spain. Its purpose is to accompany and provide information to men with this tumor and their families.
the stigma, Soler has had an impact, represents another of the main barriers to overcome so that there is more talk about this disease in men. “We must normalize that we all have breasts. Men should also feel supported so that we dare to tell it. For fear of not being understood or having problems at work and In the environment, we keep it a secret“he points out.
The investigation
If we talk about the investigation of this tumor in the male, Dr. Noelia Martinez has remarked that his future is complicated. By doing few cases, the interest is low and there are no clinical trials for this population group. The research that exists today is academicbased on retrospective studies or case series, but there is no no prospective study in this regardhas indicated.
The GEICAM Group has launched the first National Registry of Breast Cancer in Men
In fact, the GEICAM Breast Cancer Research Group has launched the first National Registry of Breast Cancer in Menthanks to which Spain is positioned as a key country for the investigation of this type of tumor in men with the collection of clinical data and biological specimens from around 800 patients.
“We have always been interested in this tumor in men, because they also have breasts and may be victims of this tumor considered ‘feminine’. The reality is that we are completely ignorant and we have been dealing with a disease as we do in the case of women and, as has already been shown, it is different and we have to individualize it. Hence the importance of creating this registry”, stressed Dr. Martínez.
patient recruitment
Experts contemplate finalizing patient recruitment and data collection in the first half of 2023, with the consequent publication of the first results in the second half of the year. In addition, this registry is accompanied by the ARDERNE program, a translational research project to advance in the individualization of the biological characteristics of each male and to identify Which is the best treatment.
Regarding the differences of the tumor in the two sexes, the experts indicate that, as well as in women 70% of breast tumors are dependent on hormone receptors and 30% present less dependenceas in the case of triple negative or HER2 positivethese two subgroups are rare in men, in which 90% of the cases detected breast tumors are of the luminal type or with the presence of hormone receptors.
If we talk about treatments, the founder of the INVI patient association stresses that they are concerned that they will not arrive on time. Màrius Soler affirms that “there are people who die from this disease when in Europe there are a dozen approved drugs with high evidence and efficacy, of which only three are available in Spain”.