Therapy and survival in male breast carcinoma: A retrospective analysis of 50 cases

The relationship between therapy and overall survival was retrospectively investigated in 50 patients with primary male breast carcinoma. Forty-five had radical or modified radical mastectomy and 5 simple mastectomy. Thirty-five received adjuvant post-operative therapy, including radiation, hormone and chemotherapy, given separately or in combination. The mean follow-up period was 67 (range, 1-230) months. The median survival was 33 months for patients receiving surgery alone and 86 months for those who also had adjuvant therapy (p=0.003). No difference in survival was found between simple or radical/modified radical mastectomy, nor among the various types of adjuvant therapy. Adjuvant therapy was most effective in large size, node positive and poorly differentiated tumors, and retained independent prognostic significance in multivariate analysis. With the limitation due to the small number of cases, our data suggest that adjuvant therapy may improve survival in males with cancer of the breast.