The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2009 about 1,910 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed among men in the United States. Breast cancer is about 100 times less common among men than among women. For men, the lifetime risk of getting breast cancer is about 1/10th of 1% (1 in 1,000). The number of breast cancer cases in men relative to the population has been fairly stable over the last 30 years.

In 2009, about 440 men will die from breast cancer in the United States.

The prognosis (outlook) for men with breast cancer was once thought to be worse than that for women, but recent studies have not found this to be true. Based on looking at each stage, the survival rates are about equal. In other words, men and women with the same stage of breast cancer have a fairly similar outlook for survival.

Last Medical Review: 09/24/2008
Last Revised: 05/13/2009