Clinical trends and outcomes of male breast cancer: Experience of a tertiary oncology centre in India

Abstract

Purpose: Because of its rarity in any oncology centre, the clinical trends of male breast cancer specific to its geographical distribution have remained relatively unexplored. This study was done to analyze the clinico-pathological data, treatment given and survival patterns of male breast cancer patients visiting our tertiary medical centre and compare our results with available literature. Methods: All male breast cancer patients registered at our clinic from 2003 to 2009 were included. Frequency distribution analysis of the demographic and clinico-pathological data and treatment variables was done. Treatment outcome was examined from Kaplan-Meir survival estimates. Results: Thirty-three male breast cancer patients were encountered. The median age of presentation was sixty years. Mostly (87.9%) they presented with lump in breast or axilla and were clinically staged to be '3' (57.6%).Obesity and alcohol were the commonest risk factors identified. Modified radical mastectomy was the commonest (69.6%) definitive therapy rendered with (only for clinically staged 3 patients) or without neo-adjuvant chemotherapy. Infiltrating ductal carcinoma was identified in most cases. Twenty-two patients received adjuvant chemotherapy and twenty-four received adjuvant radiotherapy. Eighteen (54.5%) patients were hormone-receptor positive and received tamoxifen. The median Overall survival (OS) and Progression-free survival (PFS) came out to be 14.3 months (standard error, SE of 1.185; 95% confidence interval, CI 12-16.6) and 15.7 (SE 5.35, 95% CI 5.2-26.19) months respectively. Conclusion: Male breast cancers usually carry a poor prognosis due to presentation at later stages. Most of our results correlate with previous literature. Multi-centric prospective studies are required to validate the etiological factors and prognostic determinants of survival.

Male breast cancer: A retrospective review of clinical profile from a tertiary cancer care center of India

“…[ 1 2 ] We have summarized the data on available Indian series on male breast cancer [ Table 3 ]. [ 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 ] Clinical and demographic finding are in concordance with the reported Indian series. Most studies show that male breast cancer presents in an advanced stage while most of our patients were in early stage.…”

“…[ 3 ] Literature pertaining to male breast cancer is sparse, particularly in our country. [ 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 ] The present study was done with an aim to analyze the clinicopathological and survival characteristics of male breast cancer patients.…”

Male breast cancer: a 5-year experience from a State Cancer Institute

“…Previous studies show nipple involvement as an early event in a significant number of male patients. 12,13,23 This is in concordance with our findings.…”

“…18 The median age of MBC in Indian studies is 5-10 years younger than that reported in western literature. [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] In our study, also the median age was 58 years with an age range of 36-76 years. This is almost a decade earlier than what is being reported in the West.…”

“…7 The number of patients ranged from 18 to 106. [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] The reported incidence of MBC is around 0.5-2.8% of all breast cancers in these institutes. 8,10,12,14 The incidence of MBC in our series is 1.1% which is consistent with Indian data but slightly higher in comparison to global incidence.…”