Male breast carcinoma is a relatively rare neoplasm accounting for less than 1% of all breast cancers [1]. It is a disease of the elderly, with a peak incidence around 60 years of age [2]. Majority of the cases are infiltrating duct carcinomas (70%–95%) [2]. It is extremely rare in boys and young adults. At our centre, 5 cases of carcinoma of the male breast were treated out of a total of 594 breast cancers, during the period 1997 – 2002. One of these was a rare form of breast carcinoma in a 17-year-old boy, which forms the basis of this report.

A 17-Year-old male presented with a swelling over the right breast. He had underwent excision of a lump at a peripheral hospital two years ago for a swelling in the subareolar region of the right breast with a fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) report of benign epithelial proliferative lesion. Histopathological report of the lumpectomy specimen was invasive lobular carcinoma following which he was referred to an oncologist and mastectomy was advised. Instead, he took herbal medicines. He developed recurrence on the same site within six months. He reported to the oncologist and chemotherapy using cyclophosphamide, methotrexate and 5 fluorouracil (CMF-regimen) was initiated. He was irregular and discontinued the treatment in between.

Secretory carcinoma of the breast is a rare entity, most commonly seen in females and its occurrence in male is even rarer with only 15 cases reported in the world literature [3-18]. Secretory carcinoma though known previously as juvenile breast carcinoma [19] has been reported in all age groups. In the mix series of Tavassoli and Norris the median age at diagnosis was 25 years [4]. In the recent review of data of 15 male patients by de Bree et al, the median age was 17 years [18]. Secretory carcinoma seems to occur at a younger age in males than females [18].