Hospital Outcomes of Male Breast Cancer in the United States

OBJECTIVES: Hospital utilization and costs of female breast cancer have been well documented. However, evidence focusing on male breast cancer is scarce, despite the different clinical characteristics between female and male breast cancer. We aim to estimate hospital length of stay (LOS) and costs associated with male breast cancer in the United States. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective observational study. METHODS: We analyzed the 2012-2016 Health Care Utilization Project National Inpatient Sample of 416 hospitalization events of male patients with breast cancer. Patients who had breast cancer diagnoses were selected based on the primary International Classification of Disease, Ninth Revision or Tenth Revision, Clinical Modification codes. A negative binomial regression and a generalized linear model with a gamma distribution and log-link function were conducted to estimate the LOS and hospital costs after controlling for sociodemographics, clinical characteristics (eg, metastatic status, Elixhauser Comorbidity Index [ECI] score), and hospital characteristics. RESULTS: On average, male patients with breast cancer stayed for 2.42 days and expensed $9059 per hospital visit. Patients with metastatic status had longer LOS (5.39 vs 3.24 days; P = .005) and higher hospital costs ($11,185 vs $8547; P = .03) than those without. Patients with an ECI score of 3 or more showed longer LOS (4.05 vs 2.68 days; P = .003) and higher hospital costs ($10,043 vs $7022; P < .001) than those with an ECI score of 0. CONCLUSIONS: LOS and hospital costs for male patients with breast cancer were associated with metastatic status and comorbidities. This information can be used to assess the health care resources needed to treat male breast cancer.