Men with breast cancer fare worse than women. Why?

Only a fraction of breast cancers arise in men, accounting for about 1% of all cases. But those men do worse than women, new research concludes. All told, men in the large study had a 19% higher mortality rate than the women, across all cancer stages. Men were more likely to be diagnosed at a later stage, which could stem from a lack of awareness and screening, but that’s not the whole story. Despite their aggressive cancers, men were less likely to receive conventional therapies, suggesting they were either undertreated or did not take hormone-blocking therapy when prescribed. The study authors say biological differences could also be at play, and should be further researched to ferret them out.