Breast Cancer in Men
About six weeks ago my husband was diagnosed with breast cancer. Several months prior to the diagnosis he noticed a slight discoloration of his left breast and a small lump. I didn’t even notice anything until about two months later when I saw that his nipple was inverted. I knew we had to see the doctor right away. In 2005 the American Cancer Society estimated that there was over 1,600 cases of breast cancer in men and that approximately over 450 of those cases would result in death. Breast cancer in men accounts for around 1% of all known breast cancers. Historically breast cancer in men is found in men 60 years old and older. My husband just turned sixty.
Since his diagnosis the past six weeks has been hectic with doctor appointments, surgery and more doctor appointments. The surgeon did a biopsy of the area and confirmed the breast cancer. He performed a mastectomy about a month ago and removed his left breast, ten lymph nodes and some muscle tissue. When the pathology report came back negative on the removed lymph nodes, we celebrated! You have to celebrate good news when you have cancer.
From that moment on we had to learn new terminology and start making decisions on the best treatment to beat his breast cancer. The oncologist told us that his breast cancer was a stage 2A which means the size of the cancer was 3.2 cm; intermediate in grade; his hormone receptors were positive and he had negative HER2. Approximately 85% of all male breast cancers are positive for hormone receptors.
We learned that the best treatment for male breast cancer is both a mastectomy and follow up with adjuvant therapy. This type of therapy works very well in women and as our oncologist told us that he has found it works just as well in men. Adjuvant therapy involves both chemotherapy plus tamoxifen which is a hormone therapy that is taken for five years after chemotherapy. His chemotherapy is one session every three weeks for a total of 4 sessions in all. With the adjuvant therapy the success rate is approximately 86% which means this is a high probability to cure the breast cancer. Many types of cancers are treatable but the important word is “cured” and that’s the word we wanted to hear.
We now take one day at a time and know that the chemotherapy may be difficult for him. I was hesitant to write this article but I knew that so little is known about male breast cancer and felt this was the best way to get the word out. Women if you love your men insist that they have annual physicals and if a lump is found get treatment right away. Breast cancer in the early stages is curable; don’t let it go until it’s only treatable. I also found that Montel Williams and Richard Roundtree of “Shaft” also had breast cancer and were cured.
I’m planning to write more on this especially through the chemotherapy. I want to be honest about this treatment and hopefully give some comfort to those of you who have breast cancer. Let me know if you have gone through chemo and how you and your loved ones were able to cope with breast cancer.
Until later,
Linda
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