Male Breast Cancer Prognostic Factors Versus Female Counterparts with Propensity Scores and Matched-Pair Analysis

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Abstract

Objective: To assess the effect of prognostic factors and their impact on survival in male and female breast cancer.

Methods: Medical records for men and women diagnosed with breast cancer referred to the cancer center for treatment were reviewed. Patients with distant metastatic diseases were excluded. Data on prognostic factors including age, nodal status, resection margin, use of hormonal therapy, chemotherapy with and without hormone and radiation therapy (RT), survival, and recurrence were analyzed. Survival estimates were obtained using Kaplan-Meier methodology. The Cox regression interaction was used to compare male and female differences in prognostic factors. Male breast cancer (MBC) and female breast cancer (FBC) were matched according to propensity scores and survival compared using Cox regression.

Results: From 1963-2006, there were 75 MBC and 1,313 FBC totaling 1,388 breast cancers. The median age of the cohort was 53 (range: 23-90) years. Median follow-up was 90 (range: 0.4-339) months. Prognostic factors of patients were balanced among the groups after adjusting for propensity scores. A Cox model adjusting for propensity scores showed that overall survival (OS) (HR= 2.52 (1.65, 3.86), P<0.001) and distant disease recurrence-free survival (DDRFS) (HR= 2.39 (0.75, 3.04), P=0.003) were significantly different for MBC and FBC. Analyses that stratified by propensity score quintiles had similar findings: OS HR=2.41 (1.67, 3.47), P<0.001); DDRFS HR=2.89 (1.81, 4.60), P<0.001). When MBC and FBC were matched (1:3) by propensity scores, differences between MBC and FBC were again observed in OS (HR=1.94, 95%CI:1.18-3.19, P=0.009) and DDRFS (HR=2.79, 95%CI:1.36-5.75, P=0.005) with MBC at a higher risk of death and disease recurrence compared to FBC .

Conclusion: This large series showed that MBC and FBC survivals are not similar, with MBC having a worse outcome. The finding of this study needs confirmation from a complete prospective database.

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Most cited references 23

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Male breast carcinoma: an evaluation of prognostic factors contributing to a poorer outcome.

M G Joshi, A. K. LEE, M Loda … (1996)

Although breast cancer in men is far less common than breast cancer in women, it is associated with a less favorable prognosis. Conventional histopathologic features and new prognostic markers were evaluated to explain the less favorable survival outcome. Forty-six consecutive male breast carcinomas were studied for size, histologic and nuclear grade, histologic subtype, presence of carcinoma in situ, nipple involvement, lymphovascular invasion, hormone receptor status, c-erbB-2 protein overexpression, and p53 protein accumulation. These findings were correlated with survival. Of the 46 carcinomas, 4 were noninvasive and 42 were invasive. In the invasive carcinomas, the median patient age was 64 years, and the median tumor size was 2 cm. The predominant histologic patterns were invasive ductal (45%) and mixed invasive ductal and cribriform (28%). Most tumors were of low histologic and nuclear grades (histologic grades: I, 17%; II, 50%; III, 33%; nuclear grade: I, 12%; II, 44%; III, 44%). Of those surgically staged, 22 patients (60%) were lymph node positive and 15 patients (40%) were node negative. Stage at presentation was higher than in women (0, 10%; 1, 17%; 2, 50%; 3, 13%; 4, 10%). The estrogen and progesterone receptor status was positive in 76% and 83% of tumors, respectively. Lymphatic vessel invasion (63%) and nipple involvement (48%) were also more common than in women. True Paget's disease of the nipple was not seen; all cases with nipple ulceration were the result of direct tumor extension to the epidermis. Of the 17 tumors tested, 41% were c-erbB-2 positive and 29% were p53 positive. Survival analysis was limited by the relatively small cohort size. Five- and 10-year adjusted overall survival rates for invasive tumors were 76 +/- 7% and 42 +/- 9%, respectively. Skin and nipple involvement (P = 0.03) and c-erbB-2-positivity (P = 0.03) were significant predictors of adverse survival. Male breast carcinoma presents in an advanced stage with less favorable survival, despite low histologic grade, high estrogen receptor content, and small size. Anatomic factors may have been responsible for the poor survival outcome (i.e., paucity of breast tissue and close tumor proximity to skin and nipple, facilitating dermal lymphatic spread and early regional and distant metastasis).

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Tamoxifen administration is associated with a high rate of treatment-limiting symptoms in male breast cancer patients.

T F Anelli, A Anelli, K N Tran … (1994)

Although an uncommon disease, male breast cancer (MBC) will be responsible for 300 deaths in 1993 in the United States. Because of the high rate of estrogen receptor positivity in males, adjuvant hormonal therapy with tamoxifen in the adjuvant setting has been used widely. Little is known about the side effects of this estrogen receptor blocker in males.

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Matched-pair analysis of patients with female and male breast cancer: a comparative analysis

Robert Foerster, Frank G Foerster, Volkhard Wulff … (2011)

Background Male breast cancer (MBC) is a rare disease accounting for approximately 1% of all breast carcinomas. Presently treatment recommendations are derived from the standards for female breast cancer. However, those approaches might be inadequate because of distinct gender specific differences in tumor biology of breast cancer. This study was planned in order to contrast potential differences between female and male breast cancer in both tumor biological behavior and clinical management. Methods MBC diagnosed between 1995-2007 (region Chemnitz/Zwickau, Saxony, Germany) was retrospectively analyzed. Tumor characteristics, treatment and follow-up of the patients were documented. In order to highlight potential differences each MBC was matched with a female counterpart (FBC) that showed accordance in at least eight tumor characteristics (year of diagnosis, age, tumor stage, nodal status, grade, estrogen- and progesterone receptors, HER2 status). Results 108 male/female matched-pairs were available for survival analyses. In our study men and women with breast cancer had similar disease-free (DFS) and overall (OS) survival. The 5-years DFS was 53.4% (95% CI, range 54.1-66.3) in men respectively 62.6% (95% CI, 63.5-75.3) in women (p > 0.05). The 5-years OS was 71.4% (95% CI, 62.1-72.7%) and 70.3% (95% CI, 32.6-49.6) in women (p > 0.05). In males DFS analyses revealed progesterone receptor expression as the only prognostic relevant factor (p = 0.006). In multivariate analyses for OS both advanced tumor size (p = 0.01) and a lack of progesterone receptor expression were correlated (p = 0.01) with poor patients outcome in MBC. Conclusion Our comparative study revealed no survival differences between male and female breast cancer patients and gives evidence that gender is no predictor for survival in breast cancer. This was shown despite of significant gender specific differences in terms of frequency and intensity of systemic therapy in favor to female breast cancer.

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Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Cureus

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Cureus

Journal ID (issn): 2168-8184

Title: Cureus

Publisher: Cureus (Palo Alto (CA) )

ISSN (Electronic): 2168-8184

Publication date (Electronic, pub): 16 October 2015

Publication date (Electronic, collection): October 2015

Volume: 7

Issue: 10

Electronic Location Identifier: e355

Affiliations

[1 ] Department of Oncology, Division of Radiation Oncology, Western University

[2 ] Clinical Research Unit, London Health Sciences Centre

[3 ] Radiation Oncology, London Regional Cancer Program, Western University

[4 ] Department of Oncology, Cross Cancer Center, University of Alberta

[5 ] Department of Radiation Oncology, Centre Clinique de la Porte de Saint-Cloud

[6 ] Medical Oncology, Western University

[7 ] Radiation Oncology, London Regional Cancer Program, Western University

[8 ] Department of Radiation Oncology, Allan Blair Cancer Center, University of Saskatchewan

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Edward Yu eyu@ 123456uwo.ca

Article

DOI: 10.7759/cureus.355

PMC ID: 4652922

PubMed ID: 26623210

SO-VID: a85ad470-cf1b-4c1b-8e94-b165bc51e62e

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This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Male Breast Cancer Prognostic Factors Versus Female Counterparts with Propensity Scores and Matched-Pair Analysis

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Most cited references 23

Male breast carcinoma: an evaluation of prognostic factors contributing to a poorer outcome.

Tamoxifen administration is associated with a high rate of treatment-limiting symptoms in male breast cancer patients.

Matched-pair analysis of patients with female and male breast cancer: a comparative analysis

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