The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2008 some 1,990 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed among men and about 450 men will die from breast cancer in the United States. Breast cancer is about 100 times less common among men than among women and accounts for less than half of 1% of cancer deaths among men. 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.

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 similar outlook for survival.