Invasive papillary carcinoma of the male breast: report of a rare case and review of the literature

Breast masses occur in men far less commonly than women. Papillary lesions of the male breast are rare and comprise a spectrum of lesions ranging from benign intraductal papilloma to intraductal papillary carcinoma and invasive papillary carcinoma. In this case report, a 78-year-old man presented with a subareolar painless mass. Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) was performed. Cytologic examination revealed a cellular aspirate. A diagnosis of papillary lesion favoring papillary carcinoma was rendered. The patient underwent modified radical mastectomy, which showed invasive papillary carcinoma. As far as we know, only a few cases of invasive papillary carcinoma of the male breast have been published in the literature. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case report of invasive papillary carcinoma of male breast in Malaysia. In this purview, we discuss papillary carcinoma of male breast with review of the relevant literature.