Clinical features and prognostic factors of male breast cancer vs. female breast cancer

BACKGROUND: To investigate the clinicopathological features and prognostic factors of male breast cancer (MBC) and female breast cancer (FBC) patients. METHODS: A total of 90 MBC and 180 FBC patients were included in this retrospective study. The clinicopathological features, disease-free survival rate (DFSR), and overall survival rate (OSR) were compared between the two groups. Cox proportional hazard model was used to analyze the factors affecting the survival rates. RESULTS: Most MBC were invasive ductal carcinoma (70/90, 77.8%) and luminal type (83/90, 92.2%), and were treated with modified radical mastectomy (78/90, 86.7%). Compared with women, there were more patients with one-set age of ≥70 years old, having family history of cancer, comorbid with underlying diseases in the male patients. They also had higher portion of patients at T3 and T4 stages. The rates of male patients receiving adjuvant radiotherapy, chemotherapy and endocrine therapy were lower (P<0.05) than female patients. OSR and DFSR were lower in the male patients than in the female patients (P<0.05). T stage, TNM stage, the status of progesterone receptor and endocrine therapy were independent prognostic factors for survival of MBC (P<0.05); TNM stage, chemotherapy or endocrine therapy were independent factors for survival of FBC (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Compared with FBC, MBC occurs later with more underlying diseases and lower survival rates. MBC is less active in adjuvant therapy and endocrine therapy. Since MBC has more luminal type, increased endocrine therapy may improve the survival.