title: Men with breast cancer have better disease-specific survival than women.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Male breast cancer patients have better disease-specific survival than carefully matched female breast cancer patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  Retrospective study.
  
  
  METHODS
  University hospital.
  
  
  METHODS
  Each man in the breast cancer database at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center (New York, NY) between the years 1980 and 1998 was matched with a woman. Matching was done based on age and date of diagnosis, stage, and primary histologic findings.
  
  
  METHODS
  The overall survivals and disease-specific survivals of the male breast cancer group and female breast cancer group were compared.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Fifty-three male patients were matched with an equal number of female breast cancer patients. The Kaplan-Meier curves demonstrated that there was no significant difference in overall survival. The 5- and 10-year survivals for women were 0.77 and 0.51, and for men 0.77 and 0.56. When the Kaplan-Meier curves for breast cancer-specific survival were compared, however, there was a significant difference in the 5- and 10-year survivals (P = .05, log-rank test). For women, the 5- and 10-year disease-specific survival was 0.81 and 0.7, respectively, while for men it was 0.9 and 0.9, respectively. In a Cox regression analysis for time to death from breast cancer, stage was the only predictor of death that approached significance (P = .06).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  While the overall survivals were equivalent, male breast cancer patients had significantly better disease-specific survivals compared with their female counterparts. Male patients were 4 times more likely to die of other causes than their breast cancer.
authors.affiliation: Section of Breast Surgery, Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, New York, NY 10032, USA. me180@columbia.edu
authors.forename: Mahmoud B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: El-Tamer
authors.forename: Ian K
authors.initials: IK
authors.lastname: Komenaka
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Troxel
authors.forename: Huiling
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Kathie-Ann
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Joseph
authors.forename: Beth-Ann
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Ditkoff
authors.forename: Freya R
authors.initials: FR
authors.lastname: Schnabel
authors.forename: David W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Kinne
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D018567:Breast Neoplasms, Male / Q000401:mortality*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012737:Sex Factors; D015996:Survival Rate