A. A trick question!! When I first started researching the statistics I found opposite opinions. I've since checked 4 solid references and the jury's still out. Read on.
Breast cancer in men is an uncommon disease, with approximately 900 new cases reported in 1991 in the USA, and an incidence of 1% that of women.
The average age of a man who is diagnosed with breast cancer is 60-70 years
of age. He will likely notice a mass beneath his nipple, with or without
a discharge, and some ulceration of the area. Risk factors for men to develop
breast cancer include:
Usually he will present in a more advanced stage of cancer than a woman with breast cancer. Which leads us to prognosis.
According to two of my sources, "most oncologists believe that once you correct for the stage of the disease (i.e how far advanced the disease is), men and women have the same prognosis and long/short-term outcome." Others seem to disagree and are quite certain that prognosis depends on the size of the tumour, the duration of symptoms before being diagnosed and whether or not the lymph nodes in the area are involved. These sources say the prognosis "overall is worse than that for women".
Expert opinion in the area seems to agree with the the idea that prognosis is indeed worse in men than women. As for why? The best explanation seems to be that the disease is discovered in a far more advanced stage than it is in women. Obviously, no clear answer can yet be given to your question!! (Luckily, it's not something we see a lot of.) Thanks for asking.
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