Carcinoma of the breast and Klinefelter's syndrome.

A number of associations have been suggested between neoplastic disease and conditions known to have abnormalities of the chromosomes.The association between Down's syndrome (trisomy 21) and malignancy is well documented (Stewart, Webb, and Hewitt, 1958; Holland, Doll, and Carter, 1962) and that between gonadal neoplasms and females with a Y chromosome in at least some cells is widely accepted (Teter and Boczkowski, 1967; Polani, 1968).An association between carcinoma of the breast and Klinefelter's syndrome has been sug- gested by isolated cases and by the findings of Jackson et al (1965), who in 21 cases of carcinoma of the breast in males found 3 to be chromatin positive and have an abnormal sex chromosome comple- ment.Nadel and Koss (1967), however, found no chromatin positive males in 16 cases of carcinoma of the breast. MaterialWe have surveyed 150 cases of carcinoma of the breast in males and have found 5 to be chromatin positive.The cases come from two sources.Ninety cases were located in the Birmingham Regional Cancer