Breast Carcinoma in Association with the Klinefelter’s Syndrome

Abstract

Carcinoma of the breast is a rare malignant neoplasm in males, approximately one case occurring for every 100 in women. In 1965, Jackson et al. reported an unusually high incidence of Klinefelter’s syndrome in men with breast carcinoma. Among 21 male patients with breast carcinoma, three were chromatin positive and had an abnormal sex chromosome complement. The incidence of breast carcinoma in males with Klinefelter’s syndrome was calculated to be of the same order as that found in women. Since that time there has been much discussion about the possible relationship between Klinefelter’s syndrome and breast carcinoma. A number of case histories have been published (Bauer and Erickson 1955; Berger et al. 1973; Brown and Terz 1978; Coley et al. 1971; Cuenca and Becker 1968; Davis and Wade 1972; Dodge et al. 1969; Ellison et al. 1980; Griesemer 1976; Gupta 1966; Lynch et al. 1974; Mies et al. 1982; Robson et al. 1968), and series of cases of male breast cancer in which there has been systematic screening for sex chromatin have been reported (Table 1). In Denmark 30 patients with male breast carcinoma have been screened for sex chromatin, and the results are reported below.