Bone fracture ups risk of male breast cancer
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While rare, breast cancer can occur in men and a new study suggests that the risk of developing male breast cancer is increased by having a close relative with breast cancer, being obese and physically inactive, and “somewhat surprisingly,” suffering a bone fracture after the age of 45.
Dr. Louise Brinton of the National Cancer Institute in Rockville, Maryland, and colleagues analyzed risk factors for male breast cancer among 324,920 men enrolled in the National Institutes of Health-AARP Diet and Health Study. A total of 121 men developed breast cancer during the study.
They found that men with either a sister, brother, or other “first-degree” relative with breast cancer had nearly a two-fold increased risk of developing breast cancer, compared with men without an affected first-degree relative.
The risk was particularly high among men with an affected sister and among men with both an affected mother and sister, they report in the current Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Unexpectedly, note the researchers, results showed a greater than two-fold increased risk of breast cancer in men with a bone fracture occurring after age 45. Such an association has not been seen previously, Brinton and colleagues say, and was “unexpected because breast cancers are less likely to occur among women with fractures.”
An increased risk of male breast cancer was also associated with obesity and with physical inactivity—even after accounting for body weight.
“The identified risk factors show some commonalities with female breast cancer and indicate the importance of hormonal mechanisms,” Dr. Brinton and colleagues point out.
SOURCE: Journal of the National Cancer Institute, October 7, 2008.
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