Increasing awareness about male breast cancer is a matter of life and death

I am the founder and president of "A Man's Pink," and at the age of 67, I am a five-and-a-half year breast cancer survivor.

In September 2005 I noticed changes in my right nipple (started to invert), which I showed to my family physician in Ohio in October and was advised it was nothing to worry about.

Consequently, I headed south to spend the winter in Florida. In March while visiting my family physician in Spring Hill about a cyst on my neck, he asked about the inverted nipple, ordered a mammogram and biopsy. Five days later, I was told I had breast cancer and should undergo surgery as soon as possible.

I underwent a sentinel node evaluation and modified radical mastectomy with the removal of five lymph nodes 11 days after the original mammogram. I was very fortunate that the excised lymph nodes and margins were clear of any cancer cells and that the tumor was found to be estrogen/progesterone receptor positive. Therefore, my treatment involved hormone therapy (five years on Arimidex) without the need for chemo or radiation therapy.

Although very rare, y 1 percent of all breast cancer is diagnosed in men. It is estimated (in 2010) that about 2,000 men in the U.S. and approximately 200 men in Canada are diagnosed annually with male breast cancer (). As a result, approximately 450 men in the U.S. and about 45 men in Canada will die from this disease each year.

When diagnosed with the same type and grade of tumor at the same stage, the prognosis and treatment options for men are similar to that for women. Unfortunately, the overall prognosis for men is not as good as for women because, more often than not, male breast cancer is diagnosed at a later, more advanced stage. Consequently, the survival rate for men diagnosed with breast cancer is about 76 percent compared to about 87 percent for women.

This is in part due to the fact that many men are unaware that breast cancer is a disease that can affect them and also because men, in general, are reluctant to seek medical advice, especially about a breast issue. Consequently, my mission has become to increase male breast cancer awareness; and therefore, early detection and increasing survival rates for men diagnosed with breast cancer.

Since late 2006, I have been wearing the Wrangler "Tough Enough to Wear Pink" shirt while in both the United States and in Canada, wherever and whenever I can about male breast cancer.

In 2008 my daughters and I created a website that we launched in July 2009, www.malebreastcancer.ca in order to provide information and support to other MBC patients, survivors and their loved ones as well as to provide a forum for other survivors to tell their story. In 2009 we established "A Man's Pink," an organization to support this website.

The website is doing great, averaging about 100 hits a week; and more men are feeling more comfortable talking about MBC. We joined forces in October 2009 with two other MBC organizations, "Out of the Shadow of Pink" and the "Brandon Greening Foundation" to establish our proclamation to designate the third week of October as MBC Awareness Week. We have been very fortunate to gain support from Florida Rep. Robert Schenck, who will introduce a resolution to the Florida House of Representatives next session, and Florida 5th Congressional District Congresswoman Ginny Brown-Waite, who introduced a resolution to the U.S. House of Representatives on July 29 to designate the third week of October as MBC Awareness Week. The link to the resolution is:

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=hr111-1575

On Oct. 12, the Hernando County Board of County Commissioners adopted

Resolution 2010-137 to designate the third week of October (17-23) as Male Breast Cancer Awareness Week in Hernando County. It is our hope that by increasing MBC awareness, men will realize that breast cancer is a disease that can also affect them and as a result will get any changes in a breast evaluated medically as soon as it is noticed.

Do not put it off! As a result, men diagnosed with breast cancer will have the same survival rate as women diagnosed with the disease.

Early diagnosis is the key to survival.

Increasing awareness and MBC week is a matter of life and death for men.

Together we are making a difference!