Currently submitted to: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Aug 1, 2026
Open Peer Review Period: Aug 2, 2026 - Sep 27, 2026
(currently open for review)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Marked Public Interest in Male Breast Cancer Highlights a Potential Gap in Male-Specific Access to Breast Care Services: Results of a Nationwide Infodemiological Study in Germany
ABSTRACT
Background:
Breast cancer is among the most common malignancies worldwide. Despite its high public awareness and advances in diagnosis and treatment, many patients continue to experience substantial unmet informational needs. Patients and their relatives frequently seek additional information online, making infodemiological analyses a valuable tool for identifying public concerns, knowledge gaps, and potentially underserved patient populations through online search behavior.
Objective:
This study aimed to characterize breast cancer–related online search behavior in Germany using infodemiological methods.
Methods:
Breast cancer-related online search behavior in Germany was analyzed using Google Trends to assess monthly search trends from January 2016 to December 2024 and Google Ads Keyword Planner to identify and systematically analyze associated search terms. A weighted scoring system based on search frequency was applied to further investigate treatment-related side effects and rare patient subgroups.
Results:
The lay term showed substantially higher search interest than the medical term indicating a clear preference for non-medical terminology. High search interest was observed for treatment-related side effects, particularly alopecia and pain. Among special patient groups, male breast cancer accounted for the largest proportion of related search queries despite its low incidence.
Conclusions:
Future patient information strategies should place greater emphasis on lay terminology to better reflect real-world search behavior. The remarkably high search volume related to male breast cancer is particularly notable given the generally lower health information–seeking behavior among men and may indicate barriers to access medical support. Infodemiological analyses may help identify underserved groups and support more patient-centered communication strategies.
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.