Prognostic Factors for Male Breast Cancer: Similarity to Female Counterparts

Aim: To assess whether prognostic factors in male (MBC) and female (FBC) breast cancer have similar impact on survival. Patients and Methods: Charts for men and women diagnosed with breast cancer referred to the London Regional Cancer Program (LRCP) were reviewed. Patients with distant metastatic diseases were excluded. Data on prognostic factors including age, nodal status, resection margin, use of hormonal therapy, chemotherapy with/without hormone and radiation therapy (RT), overall survival (OS), cancer-specific survival (CSS), and disease-free survival (DFS) were analyzed. Survival estimates were obtained using the Kaplan-Meier methodology. The Cox regression interaction was used to compare male and female differences in prognostic factors. Results: From 1963-2006 there were 75 cases of MBC and 1,313 of FBC totaling in 1,388 breast cancer cases. The median age of the cohort was 53 (range=23-90) years. The median follow-up was 90 (range=0.4-339) months. Of the prognostic factors considered, nodal status had a significant Cox regression interaction. For OS, p=0.001 with hazard ratios of 0.83 (95% confidence interval CI=0.42-1.64) and 2.88 (95% CI-2.36-3.52) for males and females, respectively. For CSS p=0.041 with hazard ratios of 1.22 (95% CI=0.45-3.27) and 3.52 (95% CI=2.76-4.48) for males and females, respectively. For node-positive cases, distant disease recurrence-free survival was worse for MBC (log rank, p<0.001). Conclusion: This large series showed that the nodal status influences survival differently in MBC and FBC. The findings of this study need confirmation from a more complete prospective database and further investigations on improving high-risk node-positive MBC management are warranted.