ArticleBreast cancer research : BCR2022
Infertility and risk of breast cancer in men: a national case-control study in England and Wales.
Article in Breast cancer research : BCR, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 4 citations in OpenAlex.
- Case report of invasive ductal carcinoma of the breast in a Pakistani male aged 55.Discover oncology · 2026Article
- Male Breast Cancer: Growing Insights and Continuing Challenges.Cancer medicine · 2026Review
- Are infertile men at a higher risk of morbidity and early mortality?Human reproduction (Oxford, England) · 2026Review
- Frequency, morbidity and equity - the case for increased research on male fertility.Nature reviews. Urology · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeBreast cancer is uncommon in men and its aetiology is largely unknown, reflecting the limited size of studies thus far conducted. In general, number of children fathered has been found a risk factor inconsistently, and infertility not. We therefore investigated in a case-control study, the relation of risk of breast cancer in men to infertility and number of children. PATIENTS AND
methodsWe conducted a national case-control study in England and Wales, interviewing 1998 cases incident 2005-17 and 1597 male controls, which included questions on infertility and offspring.
resultsRisk of breast cancer was statistically significantly associated with male-origin infertility (OR = 2.03 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.18-3.49)) but not if a couple's infertility had been diagnosed as of origin from the female partner (OR = 0.86 (0.51-1.45)). Risk was statistically significantly raised for men who had not fathered any children (OR = 1.50 (95% CI 1.21-1.86)) compared with men who were fathers. These associations were statistically significantly present for invasive tumours but not statistically significant for in situ tumours.
conclusionOur data give strong evidence that risk of breast cancer is increased for men who are infertile. The reason is not clear and needs investigation.
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Registered trials
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