title: Men and women show similar survival rates after breast cancer.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To compare the disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) rates of men and women undergoing treatment for breast cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective cohort study of patients with breast cancer diagnosed and treated at the Cancer Hospital III of the National Cancer Institute of Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, between 1999 and 2013. Male breast cancer cases were matched for age, year of diagnosis, and clinical staging to three female cases (1:3). Patient characteristics were abstracted from hospital records and medical charts. Cases were analyzed using descriptive statistics, and comparisons between the genders were performed using Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox regression analysis with 95% confidence intervals.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The study population comprised 98 men and 294 women. There were significant differences (p < 0.05) between the genders for marital status, alcohol consumption, smoking, presence of hypertension and other comorbidities, histological type of tumor, expression of estrogen receptors, progesterone receptors, human epidermal growth factor receptor-type 2, type of breast surgery, neoadjuvant chemotherapy, adjuvant radiotherapy, and use of palliative bisphosphonate therapy. Five- and 10-year DFS rates were, respectively, 80.0 and 51.4% for men and 71.4 and 63.5% for women (p = 0.245), and 5- and 10-year OS rates were, respectively, 65.0 and 47.5% for men and 56.5 and 41.4% for women (p = 0.221).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There was no significant difference in prognosis (DFS and OS rates) between the genders, but significant differences in sociodemographic and clinical characteristics were detected between male and female breast cancer cases.
authors.affiliation: Brazilian National Cancer Institute (INCA), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
authors.forename: Paulo Franscisco Mascarenhas
authors.initials: PFM
authors.lastname: Bender
authors.affiliation: Brazilian National Cancer Institute (INCA), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
authors.forename: Letícia Lima
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: de Oliveira
authors.affiliation: Brazilian National Cancer Institute (INCA), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
authors.forename: Célia Regina
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Costa
authors.affiliation: Brazilian National Cancer Institute (INCA), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
authors.forename: Suzana Sales
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: de Aguiar
authors.affiliation: Brazilian National Cancer Institute (INCA), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
authors.forename: Anke
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bergmann
authors.affiliation: Brazilian National Cancer Institute (INCA) and Federal University of Rio de Janeiro State (UNIRIO), Rua André Cavalcanti, 37/2nd floor - Centro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 20231-050, Brazil. lthuler@inca.gov.br.
authors.forename: Luiz Claudio Santos
authors.initials: LCS
authors.lastname: Thuler
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D018567:Breast Neoplasms, Male / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate
keywords: Disease-free survival; Male breast cancer; Overall survival; Prognosis