Written by: Darleen Garza / TheRightWriters editorial staff
Ten years ago, if you inquired about male breast cancer at
your annual physical, most doctors would likely dismiss your fears by
responding about “how incredibly RARE, or improbable it was to contract this”. This lack of public information is a common
testimony from many male breast cancer survivors- the same dilemma that is now
recognized as a main contributor to the expansion of this silent epidemic.
The term “RARE” is often misleading and alluding to
something reversible and of little concern. When it comes to any health
disorder, the limited numbers of cases showing are only the ones reported but
are often skewed due to the ‘real’ count that would constitute a baseline- from
the individuals that have not come forward to be counted. According to the CDC, for any disease to
capture EPIDEMIC proportions, it must “rises above the expected level, or baseline…
where there is a [sudden] increase in the number of cases in that population in
that area.”
BEYONCÉ'S DAD BRINGS "NEW AMMO" TO MALE BREAST CANCER BATTLE
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| Survivor Michael Singer (L) gives appreciation to Mathew Knowles (R) at Dr. Oz show for going public with his breast cancer- bringing global awareness & advocacy |
Recent data reflecting actual cases about male breast cancer
has finally reached the tipping point in the visibility scale as more news coverage
from advocacy groups and victims finally ‘going public’ have filled the media. Thanks to survivors like Mathew Knowles
(music producer and father of Beyoncé) who elected to publicize his breast
cancer significantly contributed to public awareness, identifying this issue as
a serious threat to public health.
“One of our main objectives at the Male
Breast Cancer Coalition is to publish all survivor stories to alert the men at
large that this is not a cancer to ignore… it’s not so RARE or IMPOSSIBLE to
contact,” states Cheri Ambrose, president. “Learning about Mr. Knowles’ story
from the newspapers and Good Morning America, and then sharing airtime with him
at Dr. Oz was such a powerful sign of support to our advocacy mission because
he elected to use his own story and his celebrity to get people to pay
attention. This is the kind of generosity that can truly save a lot of lives
just on pure awareness alone!” (See: Dr. Oz episode w/ Mathew Knowles interview)
In an October interview with the American Heart Association News, Mathew Knowles shared his new mission of advocacy and awareness hoping to save more lives from a disease that has now captured headlines as a global health alert. He detailed his rare gene mutation called BRCA2 as what the medical community identifies as the main cause for this cancer and possibly others. Sharing the entire road of discovering the first symptoms to having undergone a mastectomy on his right breast, Mr. Knowles has forged a national commitment to speaking out about breast cancer in men. "My opportunity is to help people have awareness of the BRCA gene (mutation) and of male breast cancer…things happens for a reason. I'm grateful for this opportunity to save myself, hopefully save my family and hopefully impact the world in an extremely positive way."
“GET
CHECKED NOW!”
The First Responders Cancer Resource was
established in 2017 by a partnership between 9/11 survivors and medical experts
in conventional and advanced cancer care. Their flagship catch-phrase “GET
CHECKED NOW!” was partly designed for the many potential cancer targets in the
firefighter community who needs to take a more proactive stance at annual exams
and awareness about how cancer truly performs. Ms. Ambrose and the many
ambassadors of MBCC adopted this tagline because of a similar dilemma among men
who are either slow to act when it comes to finding anomalies like lumps on the
chest area.
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| Click to enlarge and print |
“By now, we all know that dealing with cancer has
everything to do with TIME… the sooner you detect it, the better the likelihood
of reversing the problem,” states cancer imaging expert Dr. Robert Bard. “Where
women have been conditioned to do self-exams regularly, finding irregularities
(like lumps under the nipple or abnormal discharge) are not often part of a
man’s health regimen. Meanwhile, the
medical community has a defined set of factors that help identify an increase
in risks for breast cancer including age (60+), exposure to estrogen, obesity
and liver diseases as this increases female hormones in men. The good news is
that technologically, we have much more than the conventional mammograms… the cancer
imaging community is equipped with new innovations such as the high-speed Advanced
3D Ultrasound that’s far more accurate and completely comfortable especially
for men.”
Where the stigma of men having breasts and getting
mammograms often sits awkwardly with the typical male ego, more and more
victims are now sharing their stories at the MBCC website (and throughout
mainstream media) with the hopes of waking up the men to GET CHECKED and accept
this disease a major reality. According
to the American Cancer Society, 1 in 800 men will be diagnosed in their
lifetime… and an estimated 500 men will die of breast cancer this year. From a
recent interview, Dr. Stephen Chagares (breast surgeon) detailed how Male
Breast Cancer is often identified and points to early detection for the best chance
at survival. “It’s either spotting a
mass somewhere in the chest area or a strange discharge or a bloody nipple
drainage… it’s better if you find these symptoms at an early enough stage but
unfortunately it becomes actual breast cancer because they’re not identified
until longer down the road.”
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Special thanks to the MALE BREAST CANCER COALITION
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