Prevalence of patients hospitalised for male breast cancer in France using the French nationwide hospital administrative database.

BACKGROUND

Breast cancer (BC) in men is a rare and neglected disease representing <1% of all cancers in men and only 1% of all incident BC in western countries.

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to describe trends in the prevalence of patients hospitalised for male BC in France from 2009 to 2013, using the national administrative database (PMSI).

METHODS

We included all men aged ≥18 admitted to hospital for BC during this period and estimated the prevalence of male breast cancer hospitalised in France over 5 years. We also describe clinical characteristics and treatments in men with surgery for BC over the 5-year period of the study.

RESULTS

The prevalence of patients hospitalised for BC significantly decreased from 7.5 per 100,000 adult male inhabitants in 2009 to 6.3 per 100,000 in 2013. Considering the entire period, 2009-2013, we found a prevalence of 25.5 per 100,000 adult male inhabitants over 5 years. At 1 year of follow-up, we found a significant trend for at least one comorbidity (from 44.6% in 2009 to 51.2% in 2013, p = 0.04) but not for malignant nodes and metastasis.

CONCLUSIONS

Ours is the first study to analyse the prevalence of patients hospitalised for male breast cancer and its changes over time in the whole population of a country. Our study also provides data on the clinical characteristics and treatments of male BC in France.