Men with breast cancer risk second cancer, too

WASHINGTON, Jan 25 (Reuters) Men who have survived breast cancer have a higher risk of a second cancer than most other men, US researchers reported on Thursday.

They said men who have had breast cancer need to be closely watched for new cancers, particularly of the breast, stomach and skin.

Breast cancer will be diagnosed in 2,030 men in the United States alone this year and kill 450 of them, according to the American Cancer Society.

Sacha Satram-Hoang and colleagues at the University of California at Irvine looked at California cancer statistics from 1988 to 2003.

Of the 1,926 diagnosed with breast cancer for the first time, 221 or 11.5 per cent were diagnosed with a second new cancer -- not a spread of the original tumor -- after their breast cancer diagnosis.

They were especially prone to breast, colorectal, bladder and stomach cancers and melanoma, Satram-Hoang and colleagues wrote in the journal Breast Cancer Research.

''Our study shows that men diagnosed with a first primary breast cancer have a 16 per cent increased risk of developing a new primary cancer in comparison with men in the general population,'' the researchers wrote.

The earlier the men developed cancer, the higher their risk of a second cancer.

The researchers said it is not clear why. The men could have a genetic mutation that puts them at risk, such as BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations.

''Male tumors related to BRCA1 and BRCA2 include breast, melanoma, stomach, prostate, colon and pancreatic cancer,'' they wrote.

The men could also be exposed to some environmental or occupational cause of cancer, or there could be other differences, such as obesity, which is linked with some cancers.

Reuters PDM VP0915