MUMBAI: In the swell of advocacy on breast cancer, a crucial fact trails behind the campaign?it?s not only women but men who also develop the disease. The numbers are not as large: only one per cent of all breast cancer cases are diagnosed in men. However, some reports indicate that this statistic is slowly rising.
This limited advocacy and fewer awareness campaigns have ensured that male breast cancer has remained more or less off the radar and perhaps contributed to its late diagnosis in men. The treatment and cure of cancer hinges to a great extent on its early detection and timely treatment?and while women are constantly counselled to have check-ups and scope out for warning signs, men are not even aware they?re included in the odds.
Gilbert Fernandes, for one, spared little thought for a small lump he detected close to the nipple in 2010. ?It wasn?t painful , which is why I carried on with things without getting it diagnosed,? he says. The 71-year-old?s cancer would have gone undetected, were it not for the fact that a routine visit to his doctor to have his diabetes monitored took him to another examination room when his own doctor didn?t show up.
?Having nothing else to do, I decided to get the lump examined ,? he says. A later biopsy revealed it for what it was, and in September last year Fernandes underwent breast surgery at Tata Memorial Hospital, where atumour measuring 6.4 cm was extracted. ?I remember having to visit various departments in the course of my diagnosis, and I was always the only man in a queue of women. I was once even asked if I was waiting in the right line,? he says.
A question he put to the medical staff at the time was, ?Am I the only unfortunate man to be diagnosed with breast cancer?? He was not.
While researchers have not completely catalogued all causes for breast cancer in men, according to the American Cancer Society several risk factors have been identified. These include aging, radiation exposure , estrogen treatment, heavy alcohol intake, obesity and a family history of breast cancer (an inherited genetic mutation of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes is a contributing factor). There has been an increased incidence reported in men who have a number of female relatives with breast cancer . Incidentally, research in female breast cancer greatly outweighs research in male breast cancer, a discrepancy that is being redressed.
Dr Rajendra Badwe, the dean of Tata Memorial Centre, says the survival rate for male breast cancer is around 45 per cent, a statistic that could improve if men were diagnosed early. According to Dr Sultan Pradhan, an oncologist and surgeon with Prince Aly Khan Hospital, a reason for late diagnosis in men?apart from low awareness about the issue?is the fact that mammography, while used as a screening tool for women, is not an option for men. ?By the time a man presents himself for diagnosis, the tumour could have advanced to a stage of ulceration or it could burst through the skin, by which time the chances that it would spread to the lymph nodes in the axila or armpit would have increased,? says Dr Pradhan, who once treated a married couple, both with breast cancer.
Yet, it is women who mostly visit support groups to help them rehabilitate. Anahita Vesuvala , who has been running a free Cancer Rehab Clinic at Prince Aly Khan for 20 years, says she has so far only had two men come in. Apparently, men don?t react to news of this cancer in the way women do, the latter having much more at stake. Post-mastectomy , men don?t seek prostheses, and few choose reconstructive surgery.
?While a man does not undergo the extent of psychological trauma a woman would, the word ?cancer? itself does make anyone nervous,? writes breast cancer survivor Harshad Gandhi, who lives and works in California. ?I decided against cosmetic surgery; I?m sure that wouldn?t have been the case if I were a woman.?
Perhaps it?s time for male survivors in India too to come out in support of breast cancer. Perhaps it?s time for advocacy groups to extend the ribbon to them as well.
(The first Indian Breast Cancer Survivors? Conference will take place in Pune on October 6 and 7. Contact womens.cancer .initiative@gmail.com)
Article source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Breast-cancer-Not-just-a-woman-thing/articleshow/15730313.cms
Source: http://cancerkick.com/2012/08/26/breast-cancer-not-just-a-woman-thing/
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