More men are dying from breast cancer than ever before.
May 5, 2012- Breast Cancer is very rare in men, but those who are diagnosed with the cancer, often do not survive for as long as female sufferers of the disease do. In large part, that is due to them not realizing they have the disease and not knowing how to recognize its symptoms and warning signs. Women, on average, lived 24 months longer with breast cancer than do men.
A recent study, the largest ever on males with the disease, found that breast tumors in men were more advanced, bigger at the time of diagnosis and more apt to have spread in the body. Men also were diagnosed at an older age. Men averaged 63 and women 59.
Many males do not even know they could be diagnosed with breast cancer and even some doctors are not fully aware and dismiss symptoms that in a woman would be a red flag, said Dr. Jon Greif, the leader of the study and a surgeon in California.
A recent American Cancer Society estimate says that approximately 1 in 1,000 males will be stricken with breast cancer. In women, that rate is 1 in 8. By comparison, 1 out of every 6 males will be diagnosed with cancer of the prostate, which is the most common form of cancer in men.
In the study, men lived on average for eight years after diagnosis, while women in comparison lived over 10 years.
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