CANCER OF THE MALE BREAST IN ZARIA, NIGERIA

Sixteen Nigerian men presented with advanced breast cancer to Ahmadu B ello University Hospital in Zaria, Nigeria over the 15-year period 197 5 to 1989. This comprised 9% of patients with breast cancer seen durin g this period. They had a median age of 55 years, median symptom durat ion of 12 months and median tumour size of 8cm; 14 (87.5%) of the pati ents had Stage IV cancer at presentation. Anaplastic and infiltrating ductal carcinomas accounted for 25% and 56.3% respectively, of the tum our histological type. Mastectomy was the mainstay treatment modality. Only 4 patients came for followup, for a median duration of 8.5 month s. Overall, this pattern is very similar to the pattern of breast canc er in Nigerian women.