HealthScout - Men Usually Slow to Detect Breast Cancer

Men Usually Slow to Detect Breast Cancer

Men who have breast cancer usually discover the disease later than women, when the tumors are larger and the cancer has spread, according to findings from the largest-ever study of male breast cancer.

Even so, survival rates are not significantly different between men and women, say researchers from the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas who presented the study Monday at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago.

Men account for about 1 percent of breast cancers reported in the United States -- or 1,600 new cases last year, the researchers say. They analyzed National Cancer Institute data on breast cancer cases for men and women from 1973 through 1998. Men with cancer were found to be older, more likely to have later-stage cancers that had spread to the lymph nodes, and more likely to have ductal and papillary cancers, the study says.

The age difference probably stems from men's lack of awareness that they, too, can have breast cancer, the researchers say.

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-- Robert Preidt

Last updated 6/2/2003.

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