Clinicopathological features and prognosis of male breast cancer

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to describe the differences in clinicopathological characteristics and overall survival (OS) between male and female breast cancer patients, and to develop a prognostic nomogram to predict survival in patients with male breast cancer (MBC). METHODS: Using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database, we compared age, race, histological type, histological grade, tumor size, lymph node status, metastases, estrogen/progesterone receptor (ER/PR) and HER-2 status between male and female patients, and analyzed their relationships with OS. We established a nomogram and produced a calibration curve to observe its predictive effect. RESULTS: Age, race, T stage, N stage, bone and lung metastases, and histological type and grade differed between male and female patients. OS in male patients was related to age, tumor size, metastatic site, ER/PR status, and histological grade, but not to race or lymph node status. A nomogram was established, which showed good predictive performance for survival in MBC patients (area under the curve = 0.7). CONCLUSION: MBC has a worse prognosis than female breast cancer, mainly characterized by late onset age, late staging, high proportion of invasive non-specific histological types, high histological grade, and luminal breast cancer.