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.