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Largest study of its kind finds male breast cancer on the rise
Source: (cancerfacts.com)
Monday, May 24, 2004
HOUSTON – May 24, 2004 – The rate of male breast cancer is on the rise and the disease in men is usually detected when the tumors are bigger, have spread and may be more aggressive, compared to diagnosis of the disease in women, concludes the largest study ever conducted of male breast cancer.
According to the American Cancer Society, the incidence of the disease in men has increased from about 1,500 cases in 2001 to about 1,600 cases in 2004.
The researchers led by Dr. Sharon H. Giordano, assistant professor in the Department of Breast Medical Oncology at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, say the findings suggest both that breast cancer in men may have some important biological differences from the female disease, and that men are seemingly less aware than they should be that they can develop breast cancer.
The study appeared today in the online edition Cancer and will appear in the July 1 print issue of the publication.
"Male breast cancer is rare, accounting for less than one percent of all breast cancer, or about 1,600 new cases in the United States in 2004. While, it's not as great an increase in cases as that in women, men should be alert to the possibility that the disease could affect them," says Giordano.
Because breast cancer in men is rare, little is known about how it differs from breast cancer in women and how it should be best treated. To assess dissimilarity, Giordano and her colleagues used information from a National Cancer Institute database called SEER (Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results), which is the authoritative source of information on cancer incidence and survival in the United States.
They analyzed SEER data from 1973 through 1998 on 2,524 cases of male breast cancer and 380,856 cases of female breast cancer. Compared to female patients, the investigators found that male patients were significantly older when diagnosed - 67 years versus 62 years of age.
Giordano's team found that the most common types of cancers in men were invasive ductal carcinoma, found in 93.4 percent of the men, and papillary carcinoma, which accounted for 2.6 percent of the cases. Also of interest to the researchers was the finding that male patients are more likely than female patients to have estrogen receptor-positive tumors.
"We are not sure why this is so, but it may indicate some important differences in tumor biology," she says. "In addition, this implies that use of tamoxifen in men may be as beneficial as it is to many women," says Giordano.
They were also more likely to have later stage disease and had more spread of the cancer to their lymph nodes.
One reason for such a late diagnosis may be that men assume they are experiencing a benign condition called gynecomastia, or atypical growth of breast tissue that affects about a third of males at some point in their lives, says Giordano. The condition, common in adolescent boys, can come and go over a man's lifetime and "men may think new growth of breast tissue is just another occurrence of this condition," she explains.
Yet despite these differences, five-year, 10-year and median survival were not different between men and women, investigators say.
"Now that we have a clearer understanding of the biology of breast cancer in men, further research is needed to determine the optimal treatment for men," she says.
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