Breast cancer: Mortality is three times higher among black men than white men

Will Boggs:

The researchers note in the March 20th Journal of Clinical Oncology that black women with breast cancer also have a higher mortality than white women. "It is interesting that in (male breast cancer), as well, there are also disparities in survival," Dr. Dawn L. Hershman told Reuters Health.

"By understanding the similarities between men and women with regard to disparities in breast cancer survival," she added, "we may better understand the reasons for these disparities, and we will be one step closer to resolving the disparities in survival between blacks and whites."

Hershman, from Columbia University, New York, and her associates investigated factors influencing outcomes among 456 white men and 34 black men diagnosed with breast cancer identified in a Medicare database.

The average age of the patients was 76 years. "Male breast cancer is primarily a disease of the elderly and is mostly a cancer that is hormone sensitive," Hershman pointed out.

Black men were more likely than white men to have advanced-stage disease, larger tumor sizes, disease that had spread to the lymph nodes, poorly differentiated tumors, and higher rates of other illnesses, the team reports.

For black women, breast cancer a very different disease