Male Breast Cancer Survival Rates Better Than Women's

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Main Category: Breast Cancer
Also Included In: Men's health;��Cancer / Oncology
Article Date: 07 Oct 2011 - 14:00 PDT email to a friend � printer friendly � opinions �

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Not only is male breast cancer much rarer than female breast cancer, researchers from the National University of Singapore found that men who develop breast cancer also have a lower risk of death, even though they are more likely to have advanced disease. Their findings have been published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

The authors inform that the male breast cancer rate is less than one-hundredth of that of female breast cancer. As male breast cancer is fairly rare, they explain that few studies have assessed risk and prognosis.

Mikael Hartman, MD, PhD. and team carried out a population-based study involving 459,846 females and 2,664 males who had been diagnosed with breast cancer in Sweden, Singapore, Norway, Switzerland, Finland and Denmark during the last four decades. They compared trends in breast cancer rates, survival rates, and relative excess mortality between men and women.

Below are some of their highlighted findings:

• A woman's risk of developing breast cancer is 66.7 per 10⁵ person-years
• A man's risk of developing breast cancer is 0.40 per 10⁵ person-years
• The average age at which women are diagnosed with breast cancer is 61.7 years
• The average age at which men are diagnosed with breast cancer is 69.6 years
• Although initially men appeared to have a poorer 5-year survival ratio than women, after making adjustments for age, year of diagnosis, stage of cancer, and treatment, men were found to have a considerably better relative survival rate than women

The scientists are not sure why men fare better than women, perhaps the way their bodies react to anti-hormone medications and chemotherapy has something to do with it. However, women's outlooks have been improving at a faster rate than men's.

Males should call their doctor if they notice a lump, or any changes, such as ulcerations, a discharge from the nipple, or changes in the aerola (small darkened area around nipple). The authors concluded in an Abstract in the journal:

"Male patients with breast cancer have later onset of disease and more advanced disease than female patients. Male patients with breast cancer have lower risk of death from breast cancer than comparable female patients. "

There are approximately 2,140 new male breast cancer diagnoses in the USA and 300 in the UK each year - and 450 deaths annually in the USA from the disease. Some known risk factors for male breast cancer include exposure to radiation, exposure to high estrogen, and some genetic factors. Some medications, obesity or liver disease may expose a man to high levels of estrogen. Males who have a high prevalence of female breast cancer in close relatives have a higher risk of developing the cancer themselves, compared to other males. Long-term alcoholism has been associated with a higher breast cancer risk among men. Males with Klinefelter syndrome have a significantly higher risk of developing breast cancer. Men who have the BRCA genetic mutation also have a higher risk.

Written by Christian Nordqvist
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

Visit our breast cancer section for the latest news on this subject.

"Incidence and Outcome of Male Breast Cancer: An International Population-Based Study"
Hui Miao, Helena M. Verkooijen, Kee-Seng Chia, Christine Bouchardy, Eero Pukkala, Siri Lar�nningen, Lene Mellemkj�r, Kamila Czene and Mikael Hartman
Journal of Clinical Oncology 10.1200/JCO.2011.36.8902

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