The prognostic effect of chemotherapy in male breast cancer: An experience of 136 cases from a retrospective study

Background

Male breast cancer (MBC) is a rare tumor. There were few researches concerning the effect of chemotherapy for MBC. The purpose of this study is to estimate the value of chemotherapy on prognosis in MBC.

Methods

From Jan 1990 to Jan 2008, the clinical and pathological materials of MBCs were collected and reconfirmed in Zhejiang Cancer Hospital in China. The disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) between chemotherapy group and non-chemotherapy group were compared by Kaplan-Meier survival curve (Log-Rank). All survival factors were verified by COX proportional hazards model.

Results

The median follow-up time was 125 months (74 ∼ 189 months). There were 26 cases (19.12%) with recurrence or metastasis in the follow-up time. Among those patients, 11 cases with bone metastasis (42.31%), 5 cases with multiple lesion-metastasis (19.23%), 3 patients with liver recurrent (11.54%), 3 cases with lung recurrent (11.54%), 2 cases with brain metastasis (7.69%) and 2 case with local recurrence (7.69%). The 10-year OS rate of all 136 patients was 71.80%. There were 20 cases (25%) with recurrence or metastasis in patients with chemotherapy, while 6 cases (10.70%) with recurrence or metastasis in patients without chemotherapy. The mean DFS time of MBC with chemotherapy and non-chemotherapy was 151.39 ± 7.68 months vs 154.13 ± 4.95 months, respectively, which could not achieve a significant difference (Log-Rank test, χ² = 3.645, p = 0.056). The mean OS time of MBC with chemotherapy and non-chemotherapy is 155.59 ± 7.26 months vs 154.26 ± 4.90 months, respectively (Log-Rank test, χ2 = 2.469, P > 0.05). COX proportional hazard regression model indicated that chemotherapy did not have significant correlation with DFS (hazard ratio, HR = 0.371, p > 0.05); while it might be a protective factor on OS (HR = 0.108, p = 0.030), which appeared a high consistency with poor-prognosis factors such as histological grade, HR, HER2 and Ki67. The stratified analysis showed that MBC with positive lymph node and high histological grade have benefited from chemotherapy.

Conclusions

The utility of chemotherapy should be considered in the high-risk level of recurrence/metastasis in MBC.

Clinical trial identification

Legal entity responsible for the study

Zhejiang Cancer Hospital

Funding

Zhejiang Cancer Hospital

Disclosure

All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.