Chromosomal abnormalities in the lymphocytes of a male patient with breast cancer.

Blood lymphocyte cultures of a male with carcinoma of the breast revealed both numerical (hypodiploidy and hyperdiploidy) and structural abnormalities. Only few cases of male breast cancer have been cytogenetically characterized. Earlier studies revealed normal karyotypes in peripheral blood cultures of male breast cancer patients and abnormalities only in the tumor tissue. The present report describes 16.6% abnormal metaphases detected in the peripheral blood lymphocytes. Numerical abnormalities were loss of chromosome 9 and 19 and gain of chromosome 7. Structural abnormalities were a cell with marker, del(11)(q22-23) and dic(7;19)(q36;p13). These abnormalities are compared with male and female tumor karyotypes reported in the literature.