Stage III Male Breast Cancer Responds to Chemotherapy, Surgery and Radiation

What happened, in summary

A 72-year-old man sought care after a right-breast mass enlarged and became painful. Biopsy showed invasive breast carcinoma that was estrogen-receptor positive, progesterone-receptor positive, and HER2-negative. He received 4 cycles of epirubicin plus cyclophosphamide followed by 4 cycles of docetaxel between March and September 2022. The tumor partially responded, but a substantial breast mass and abnormal axillary lymph nodes remained.

He then underwent a right mastectomy with axillary lymph-node dissection. Pathology showed invasive carcinoma with all 12 removed lymph nodes involved, and the case was classified as Stage III. The surgical margins were clear.

After surgery, he received carboplatin plus gemcitabine beginning in November 2022 and completed radiotherapy between December 2022 and January 2023. His follow-up was favorable: CT scans performed 4 months and 9 months after surgery showed no suspicious metastatic lesions and no evidence of local tumor recurrence. This provided a 9-month post-treatment period without local recurrence or suspicious metastatic lesions.