It is no joke that men can suffer and die from breast cancer just as women can. In fact, a new report concludes that while breast cancer is much rarer in men than women, it is more aggressive. Early diagnosis, treatment and recovery rates are all significant areas for improvement with male breast cancer. Men definitely do not do as well as women when it comes to this condition.
The author of the new research findings, Dr. Jon Greif, a specialist surgeon based in San Francisco says of men that… “They were less likely to get the standard treatments that women get.” Mortality rates are higher for men even when it is diagnosed in the early stages.
The cancers in the genders differ in many respects but much more research is needed to discover if the differences are sustained in clinical practice because of limitations in the scope of this study. In particular, the database used in the study followed deceased cancer patients, but the causes of death may or may not have been breast cancer.
Oncologists in America can expect to see more than 2000 cases of breast cancer in males each year. This statistic is from the American Cancer Society. They go on to predict that 410 men will die of the condition this year in the United States. Dr. Greif compared around 13,000 men with breast tumors, to more than 1.400,000 females with the condition in the 10 years from 1998.
The investigative team analyzed cancer characteristics and recovery rates, taking into consideration age, ethnicity and lifestyle factors. The male subjects were more likely to be black and less likely to be Hispanic. Furthermore, the men were older at diagnosis, 63 years of age on average, compared to 59 years for females.
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