Long-term survival of male patients with invasive breast cancer in Southern Taiwan

Abstract

This study aimed to assess the survival rates of male patients diagnosed with invasive breast cancer. A comprehensive review of medical records of 28 male breast cancer patients in Southern Taiwan from 2006 to 2017 was conducted, and Kaplan-Meier analysis was computed to estimate survival probabilities. Among the 28 patients, 22 (78.6%) were diagnosed with left-sided breast cancer, while 6 (21.4%) had right-sided breast cancer. Within the subgroup of 22 patients with left-sided breast cancer, 5 individuals succumbed to the disease during the ten-year observation period. Further analysis revealed that the estimated survival rates at both the 5-year and 10-year intervals were 57.1%, and the median survival duration was 87.7 months, with a 95% confidence interval spanning from 69.5 to 105.8 months. Univariate Cox regression analysis identified stage (p = 0.034), pathological N (p = 0.0001), and distant metastasis (p = 0.007) as significant variables associated with patient survival, but none of these were independent variables on multivariate Cox regression analysis. Taken together, despite the relatively limited sample size of this study, which reflects the rarity of male breast cancer cases, our findings underscore the critical importance of early diagnosis and timely treatment in preventing disease recurrence and improving overall survival rates in male breast cancer patients.

Keywords

• male breast cancer
• survival analyses
• follow-up study