Breast Cancer in Men: Clinical and Pathological Analysis of 817 Cases

Abstract

The objective of the current study was to describe breast cancer cases in men according to age, stage, and histology, calculating risks compared to women. It is a retrospective cross-sectional study of all breast cancer cases of the Hospital Cancer Registry of São Paulo state, Brazil, 2000–2015. Variables were age, sex, stage, and histology. Absolute numbers and proportions, Mann–Whitney test and prevalence ratio with 95% confidence interval were used. The study included 93,737 cases, of which 817 were males. The mean age at diagnosis was 60.3 years in men and 56.2 years in women ( p < .001). Stage II was the most common in both sexes (33.9% in men and 36.5% in women). Men had a higher frequency of stage III than women (PR 1.18, 95% CI 1.01–1.37). Stage 0 was significantly more common in women (PR 0.69, 95% CI 0.51–0.94). Ductal carcinoma and its variants were the most common histological types in both sexes (88.7% in men and 89.0% in women). Men had a higher frequency of rarer histological types such as papillary (PR 2.17, 95% CI 1.36–3.44) and sarcomas (PR 4.10, 95% CI 1.86–9.01). In conclusion, in men, breast cancer diagnosis occurred in more advanced ages and stages. Invasive ductal carcinoma was the primary histological type observed, although rarer types were more frequent.