Survival Stats Overall survival for men who have breast cancer is similar to that of women with breast cancer. Breast cancer in men, however, is frequently diagnosed at a later stage, affecting the likelihood of survival. Chemotherapy is the use of drugs to kill cancer cells. Chemotherapy may be taken by mouth or it may be put into the body by inserting a needle into a vein or muscle. Chemotherapy is called a systemic treatment because the drugs enter the bloodstream, travel through the body, and can kill cancer cells outside the breast area.
Hormone therapy is used to change the way hormones in the body help cancers grow.
This may be done by using drugs that change the way hormones work or by surgery to take out organs that make hormones, such as the testicles. Hormone therapy with tamoxifen is often given to patients with early stages of breast cancer. Most men diagnosed with breast cancer will receive a modified radical mastectomy followed by removal of some of the lymph nodes located under the arm. Therapy given after an operation when there are no cancer cells that can be seen is called adjuvant therapy. The patient's response to hormone therapy depends on the presence of hormone receptors in the tumor.