Mammographic appearances of male breast disease

Various male breast diseases have characteristic mammographic appearances t hat can be correlated with their pathologic diagnoses. Male breast cancer i s usually subareolar and eccentric to the nipple. Margins of the lesions ar e more frequently well defined, and calcifications are rarer and coarser th an those occurring in female breast cancer. Gynecomastia usually appears as a fan-shaped density emanating from the nipple, gradually blending into su rrounding fat. It may have prominent extensions into surrounding fat and, i n some cases, an appearance similar to that of a heterogeneously dense fema le breast. Although there are characteristic mammographic features that all ow breast cancer in men to be recognized, there is substantial overlap betw een these features and the mammographic appearance of benign nodular lesion s. The mammographic appearance of gynecomastia is not similar to that of ma le breast cancer, but in rare cases, it can mask malignancy. Gynecomastia c an be mimicked by chronic inflammation, hll mammographically lucent lesions of the male breast appear to be benign, similar to such lesions in the fem ale breast.