Breast cancer in Japanese men: does sex affect prognosis?
BACKGROUND
Breast cancer has received much less investigative attention in Asian men than in Caucasian men. We examined whether the prognosis of Japanese men with breast cancer differs from that of Japanese women with the disease.


METHODS
The clinicopathological features of 14 Japanese men with breast cancer were reviewed and age- and stage-matched case-control analysis of these men and 140 female patients was performed.


RESULTS
Disease-free survival (p=0.94) and overall survival (p=0.62) did not differ significantly between the sexes. Five-year disease-free survival was 77% for the men and 75% for the women, and the 5-year overall survival was 92% for the men and 86% for the women. The disease recurred in 2 men but none died of breast cancer, although 3 died of other causes during the median follow-up period of 7 years. There were no significant differences in p53 mutation (p=0.20) or erbB-2 oncoprotein overexpression (p=0.33) between the men and women studied.


CONCLUSIONS
Survival rates of Japanese male and female breast cancer patients are similar when age and stage of the disease are taken into consideration. However, comorbid disease mortality is likely the major contributor to clinical outcome in Japanese male breast cancer.
Anan
Keisei
K
Department of Surgery, Kitakyushu Municipal Medical Center, Kokurakita-ku, 2-1-1 Bashaku, Kitakyushu, Fukuoka 802-0077, Japan.
Mitsuyama
Shoshu
S
Nishihara
Kazuyoshi
K
Abe
Yuji
Y
Iwashita
Toshimitsu
T
Ihara
Takaaki
T
Tamae
Keiyoshi
K
Ono
Minoru
M
Toyoshima
Satoshi
S
D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D018567:Breast Neoplasms, Male / Q000473:pathology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012737:Sex Factors