Cancer Resources > Cancer News > 2002 > April

Male breast cancer more common, outcome better among Ashkenazi Jews

Last Updated: 2002-04-16 14:00:27 EDT (Reuters Health)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In Israel, the incidence of male breast cancer appears to be higher among Ashkenazi Jews, but the prognosis may be more favorable, than among Sephardim, according to a report in the April 15th issue of Cancer.

Dr. Baruch Brenner from Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tiqva, Israel and colleagues used hospital records and The Israel Cancer Registry to analyze the epidemiologic and clinicopathologic characteristics of male breast carcinoma in Israel.

The median age at diagnosis was 69 years, the authors report, though breast carcinoma tended to occur at a younger age in Sephardic than in Ashkenazi men. The incidence of breast carcinoma was 1.8-fold higher in Ashkenazi men (1.3 per 100,000 population) than in Sephardic men (0.76 per 100,000 population), the report indicates.

There was, however, a trend toward more advanced tumor size at the time of diagnosis in the Sephardic group, the researchers note, which also had a significantly worse disease-specific survival. Also, both the median and the estimated 5-year survival rates were lower for the Sephardic men (72.8 months and 62.0%, respectively) than for the Ashkenazi men (77.0 months and 64.3%; p = 0.08).

"Further investigation of the different features of male breast carcinoma in these ethnic groups is underway," the researchers say.

They note that the apparent susceptibility of Ashkenazi Jewish men to breast cancer may be attributable to founder mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, as is the case among Ashkenazi Jewish women .

Cancer 2002;94:2128-2133.

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