Study indicates men are less likely to survive breast cancer

Men are less likely than women to get breast cancer but they are also less likely to survive it, according to new research. In what researchers are calling the largest study ever of gender differences in breast cancer, they compared more than 13,000 male and 1,440,000 female cases recorded in the U.S. National Cancer Database between 1998 and 2007. The study, presented Friday at the annual meeting of the American Society of Breast Surgeons in Phoenix, Ariz., found the overall five-year survival rate for women was 83%, compared to 74% for men. The difference, said California surgeon and lead researcher Dr. Jon Greif, may be that awareness of breast cancer is so much greater among women than men. “Guidelines call for regular screening, both clinical and mammographic, in women, leading to earlier detection.” That means it is often diagnosed in women before a lump develops. Because men are typically diagnosed later, they had tumors that were larger, more advanced and more likely to have spread to the lymph nodes or elsewhere. In Canada, men account for less than 1% of all breast cancer sufferers — about 190 cases a year, compared to 23,400 cases in women, says the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. Many of the risk factors for men are the same as for women: family history and/or genetic predisposition; significant exposure to radiation in the chest area; and lifestyle habits such as smoking, being overweight and inactive. Men who have higher than average levels of estrogen or have conditions that disrupt hormone levels are also at a greater risk. The men in the study lived an average of about eight years after being diagnosed, compared with more than 10 years for women, but the data did not indicate whether breast cancer was the cause of patients’ death.