Aims. To carry out a retrospective study of male breast cancer over a 22-ye
ar experience.
Methods. Data from 121 male patients with breast cancer treated between the
years 1972 and 1994 at the Surgical Clinic of Ankara Oncology Hospital wer
e reviewed. Distribution of cases according to stage was: 2.5% stage I, 28.
9% stage II, 55.4% stage III and 13.2% stage IV (AJCC staging method). The
surgical treatment for 23 of the patients (19%) was Halsted's radical maste
ctomy or modified radical mastectomy. Seventy-three cases (60.3%) had total
mastectomy without axillary node dissection and 25 (20.7%) had local tumou
r excision only. Seventy-two of 121 patients had adjuvant treatment.
Results. In general the prognosis of men with breast cancer was worse than
fur women. In the analysis of patients in stages I, II and III-A (operable
disease group), the 5-year survival rates were 73% in axillary node-negativ
e patients and 77% in those with tumours sized under 5 cm (P<0.001). In the
se patients, univariate analysis demonstrated that axillary status (relativ
e risk of death in positive status vs. negative = 3.6), tumour size (relati
ve risk in T-3 vs. T1+2 = 2), surgical treatment type (relative risk in sim
ple mastectomy vs. radical mastectomy = 1.9) and adjuvant chemotherapy (rel
ative risk if no chemotherapy = 1.4) were statistically significant factors
associated with survival.
Conclusions. Cox's regression model revealed that axillary status, tumour s
ize and type of surgical treatment were the most important independent prog
nostic factors (P<0.001).