If this is not your name, click here.
| | If this is not your name, click here. | | |
| | Contact Us | Order Now | Journals | Bookstore | Register a colleague | | |
| |  Early-Stage Disease Explains Worse Survival in Male Breast Cancer: Presented at SSO By Jill Stein ST. LOUIS, Mo -- March 9, 2010 -- Researchers are reporting that higher male breast cancer-specific mortality is attributed to lower survival in stage I disease only, with no significant mortality differences observed in other stages at diagnosis. The data, released on March 6 at the 2010 Society of Surgical Oncology Annual Cancer Symposium (SSO), also show that men are more likely to die of other causes compared with women at all stages of nonmetastatic breast cancer. Jennifer Gnerlich, MD, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, and colleagues conducted a study to examine differences in overall and breast cancer-specific mortality between males and females by stage at diagnosis and to identify patient and tumour characteristics that account for survival disparities. Male breast cancer is uncommon, and accounts for less than 1% of all cancers in men and less than 1% of all breast cancers in the United States, the authors pointed out in their poster presentation. Because male breast cancer is so rare, treatment is extrapolated from the treatment of female breast cancer. To date, there have been no prospective, randomised trials that have looked at the treatment for male breast cancer and prior retrospective studies are limited because of their small sample size. Retrospective studies have shown that male breast cancer patients have a worse prognosis than females, which suggests that a different treatment strategy may be needed, the investigators said. Dr. Gnerlich and her associates conducted a population-based cohort study of breast cancer patients who were diagnosed between January 1, 1988, and December 31, 2003. Overall, 1,541 (0.6%) patients were male and 244,518 (99.4%) were female. Results showed that male patients were more likely to be black, married, diagnosed at an older age, diagnosed at an advanced stage, and treated by mastectomy (P < .001 for each). Male tumours were also more likely to be a lower grade, oestrogen receptor-positive, progesterone receptor-positive, and lymph node-positive (P < .001 for each). There was no significant difference in laterality. Overall, males were more likely to die from all causes (complete hazard ratio [HR] = 1.42) at all stages of disease except stage IV breast cancer. While breast cancer-specific mortality was higher in males than females, males were more likely to die from their breast cancer compared with females only for stage I disease after adjusting for potential confounders (adjusted HR = 2.03). The investigators said that future studies looking at tumour biology characteristics and treatment of early-stage male breast cancer are needed to determine how these factors influence the mortality disparity. [Presentation title: Poorer Survival in Male Breast Cancer Is Attributed to Early Stage Disease. Abstract P61]
|
