External beam radiotherapy in the treatment of male breast carcinoma: patterns of failure in a single institute experience.
OBJECTIVE
We analyzed our own results in the treatment of male breast cancer patients with respect to local control, overall survival and possible prognostic factors for local and distant control.


METHODS
Thirty-one patients with 32 carcinomas of the male breast were treated with radiotherapy. Twenty-five patients received radiotherapy to the chest wall including or not regional lymphatics after initial mastectomy (n = 23) or after surgery for local recurrence (n = 2). Median total dose was 60 Gy to the chest wall and 46 Gy to regional lymphatics. Seven patients with metastatic disease were referred for palliative radiotherapy.


RESULTS
Overall survival after postoperative radiotherapy was 40% after a median follow-up of 4.3 years. Actuarial 3-, 5- and 10-year survival was 82.6%, 56.5% and 43.5%, respectively. Five-year progression-free survival was 62.5%. Survival was significantly affected by the presence of lymph node metastases (P <0.001). Local recurrence was seen in one patient after 29 months.


CONCLUSIONS
Postoperative radiotherapy is important in the management of male breast cancer to improve local control and progression-free survival, resulting in one local failure in our analysis. The presence of lymph node metastases significantly impairs survival.
Zabel
Angelika
A
Department of Radiotherapy, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany. a.zabel@dkfz-heidelberg.de
Milker-Zabel
Stefanie
S
Zuna
Ivan
I
Wannenmacher
Michael
M
Debus
Jürgen
J
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D018567:Breast Neoplasms, Male / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate; D017211:Treatment Failure