Men with breast cancer have same disease-specific and event-free survival as women

Breast carcinoma in men is an uncommon disease. The aim of this study is to compare overall survival (OS) and disease-specific survival (DSS) in a group of matched men and women with breast cancer.

Each man with breast cancer recorded in the database was matched with two women. Matching was done based on age, year of diagnosis, and stage. To compare breast cancer characteristics between men and women, the chi-square test was used for qualitative data and the t-test for quantitative data. Overall survival and DSS were calculated using Kaplan-Meier methods. Cox proportional hazards models have been used to compare survival rates between men and women.

The 58 male breast cancer patients were matched with 116 female patients. The mean age at diagnosis was 63.9 +/- 11.9 years for men and 65.7 +/- 11.5 years for women (P = .72). The median follow-up was 9.7 years for men and 10.7 years for women. The 5- and 10-year OS for men were, respectively, 58.9% and 33.9%. The 5- and 10-year OS for women were 68.2% and 52.1%. Men with breast cancer had a significant risk of dying compared with women (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.59; 95% confidence interval (95% CI), 1.04-2.42, P = .03). The 5- and 10-year DSS were 73.0% and 55.1% for men, and 72.8 and 61.2% for women, respectively. There was no difference in DSS between the two matched groups (HR = 1.26; 95% CI, 0.76-2.10, P = .37).

The prognosis for men with breast carcinoma is similar to that for women with similar-stage disease.