WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Men who have survived breast cancer have a higher risk of a second cancer than most other men, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday.
They said men who have had breast cancer need to be closely watched for new cancers, particularly of the breast, stomach and skin.
Breast cancer will be diagnosed in 2,030 men in the United States alone this year and kill 450 of them, according to the American Cancer Society.
Sacha Satram-Hoang and colleagues at the University of California at Irvine looked at California cancer statistics from 1988 to 2003. Of the 1,926 diagnosed with breast cancer for the first time, 221 or 11.5 percent were diagnosed with a second new cancer -- not a spread of the original tumor -- after their breast cancer diagnosis.
They were especially prone to breast, colorectal, bladder and stomach cancers and melanoma, Satram-Hoang and colleagues wrote in the journal Breast Cancer Research.
"Our study shows that men diagnosed with a first primary breast cancer have a 16 percent increased risk of developing a new primary cancer in comparison with men in the general population," the researchers wrote.
The earlier the men developed cancer, the higher their risk of a second cancer.
The researchers said it is not clear why.
The men could have a genetic mutation that puts them at risk, such as BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations. "Male tumors related to BRCA1 and BRCA2 include breast, melanoma, stomach, prostate, colon and pancreatic cancer," they wrote.
The men could also be exposed to some environmental or occupational cause of cancer, or there could be other differences, such as obesity, which is linked with some cancers.
Breast cancer is a rare disease in men, but it does happen. The study reviewed here found that men diagnosed with breast cancer were 16% more likely than men without breast cancer to develop another, new cancer. For some men, the second cancer was a new breast cancer (not spread from the first breast cancer). Other men in the study developed another type of cancer, including colon, bladder, stomach, and skin cancer. The study couldn't say why men who had breast cancer had a higher risk of a second cancer.
There are factors that increase the risk of breast cancer in men. These include a family history of breast cancer, genetic mutations, obesity, alcohol, and using hormonal medicines. It's likely that these and other unknown factors increase a man's risk of cancer, including breast cancer. The challenge to doctors is to identify these unknown risk factors for cancer. When the risk factors are known and understood, men AND women will have the hope that they can more effectively lower their risk of all forms of cancer, including breast cancer.
Visit the Breastcancer.org Male Breast Cancer section and Lower Your Risk section to learn more.
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