Men with Breast Cancer Fare Worse than Women

By Sally Graham

 Suzanne Klimberg, M.D., director of the UAMS Breast Cancer Program, successfully treated Gerry Vickers, of Dumas, for breast cancer at the UAMS Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute.
Suzanne Klimberg, M.D., director of the UAMS Breast Cancer Program, successfully treated Gerry Vickers, of Dumas, for breast cancer at the UAMS Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute.

“Because men may not realize they can get breast cancer, their disease has often progressed significantly before it is discovered,” said V. Suzanne Klimberg, M.D., a co-author of the study and director of the Breast Cancer Program at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS). Klimberg is also president of the American Society of Breast Surgeons.

On average, women with breast cancer lived two years longer than men in the biggest study yet of the disease in males. Jon Greif, a breast cancer surgeon and doctor of osteopathic medicine in Oakland, Calif., was the lead author of the study. A summary was presented at a meeting of the American Society of Breast Surgeons in Phoenix in May.

The study found that men’s breast tumors were larger at diagnosis, more advanced and more likely to have spread to other parts of the body. Men also were older at the time of diagnosis. Those in the study were an average of 63, versus 59 for women.

“In addition to men being unaware that they can develop breast cancer, some doctors may not immediately recognize the same symptoms in men that they would in women,” Klimberg said.

The American Cancer Society estimates one in 1,000 men will get breast cancer, versus one in eight women.

The researchers analyzed 10 years of national data on breast cancer cases, from 1998 to 2007. A total of 13,457 male patients diagnosed during those years were included, versus 1.4 million women. The database contains about 75 percent of all breast cancer cases in the United States.

“We know that factors such as age, genetics and family history affect a woman’s chance to develop breast cancer. It appears that these same factors also play a part in whether men will develop the disease,” Klimberg said.

The men who were studied lived an average of about eight years after being diagnosed, compared with more than 10 years for women. The study doesn’t indicate whether patients died of breast cancer or something else.

Men’s breast cancer usually shows up as a lump under or near a nipple. Nipple discharge and breasts that are misshapen or don’t match are also possible signs that should be checked out.