title: Survival of male breast cancer patients: a population-based study in Osaka, Japan.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Little information is available on the survival of male breast cancer patients because the disease is extremely rare in men. Recent studies indicated there were no gender-differences in the 5-year survival if patients' age and stage were matched. However, this problem has rarely been studied in Japan.
  
  
  METHODS
  Using the Osaka Cancer Registry's data, the 5-year survival was analyzed based on the reported 19,869 cases who lived in Osaka Prefecture excluding Osaka City and were diagnosed in 1975-1997, or who resided in Osaka City and were diagnosed in 1993-1997, because reliable follow-up information was available for them.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Breast cancer in males accounted for 0.49% of all cases during 1975-1997. The 5-year relative survivals were 71.1% in men and 81.6% in women. The survival in males decreased over older groups due to a lower proportion of localized stage, but not in females. The survival of males in the regional stage was significantly lower than that of females (49.1 versus 73.7%, P<0.05). Survival of males has increased since 1980-1984, while it has been stable in females. Compared with the survival of patients diagnosed in 1975-1979, male patients diagnosed in 1995-1997 had a noticeably lower risk of death after adjusting for age and cancer stage.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results suggest male breast cancer patients at the regional stage had a worse 5-year survival rate compared to females. However, this gender-related difference seems to have disappeared with the increased survival of males during the 1990s. Further population-based studies are required with a greater number of male patients diagnosed after 1990.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cancer Control and Statistics, Osaka Medical Center for Cancer and Cardiovascular Diseases, Osaka 537-8511, Japan. akiko3@gol.com
authors.forename: Akiko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ioka
authors.forename: Hideaki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tsukuma
authors.forename: Wakiko
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Ajiki
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Oshima
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality*; D018567:Breast Neoplasms, Male / Q000401:mortality*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012042:Registries / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012737:Sex Factors; D016019:Survival Analysis; D015996:Survival Rate