According to a National University of Singapore study, men are more likely to die from breast cancer once diagnosed. Although men get less that one percent of the rate of women, the disease is usually more advanced when diagnosed, and they are more likely to die from it. The study included the combined cancer registries form Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Singapore and Switzerland and included date from approx. 460,000 women and 2,700 men diagnosed with breast cancer dating back to 1970. The research was led by Mikael Hartman at the National University of Singapore.
Reuters recently reported, male breast cancer is more likely to have spread by the time diagnosed. Opting for surgery less often than women as well as radiation treatment, men had similar rates of chemotherapy and hormone treatment. Overall, there was a 72 percent chance of survival rate in comparison with 78 percent for women. The U.S. National Cancer Institute states that men are most commonly in their 60s and 70s when diagnosed. Exposure to radiation, diseases that elevate the estrogen level, liver cirrhosis or the genetic disorder of Klinefelter syndrome were some of the know factors that increase a man’s risk for the disease.
“Men who develop a breast lump delay seeing their doctor longer than a comparable woman with similar symptoms,” Hartman said in an email to Reuters Health. “Male breast cancer is rare but men can develop the disease and should be aware that they should seek care if a breast lump develops.”
Hartman’s team said in the Journal of Clinical Oncology that previous studies have shown that it typically takes a few months from when men start getting symptoms until they are diagnosed with breast cancer.
