Male breast cancer
-
- May
- 18
The article about a Blauvelt man who underwent a mastectomy caught plenty of attention from readers and other media. The 28-year-old man was told he had breast cancer. He then underwent a mastectomy and said he was told weeks after the surgery that he never had the disease. He is suing Nyack Hospital and three doctors, claiming negligence.
Some got stuck on the male breast cancer diagnosis. Yes, men get breast cancer. According to the American Cancer Society, breast cancer is about 100 times less common in men than women. That said, ACS estimates that 1,910 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in men during 2009, and this year, about 440 men will die from breast cancer.
Breast cancer in men is real. In fact, Journal News Entertainment Editor Bob Heisler wrote about his battle with the disease. He was diagnosed in 2002. Here’s a bit of his 2007 column on being a man and a breast cancer survivor:
My anger is gone, mostly. I no longer send e-mails to breast cancer fund-raising sites asking how many men they kill each year by marketing it as a ladies-only disease. …
I smile when my oncologist appointments are announced for Roberta instead of Robert A.
I look in the chemo center for men getting treatment and try to talk with them – and their families. I even look good in pink, I think.
The prognosis for men with breast cancer is quite similar to that for women—it depends on how early the cancer is diagnosed. Just like in women, men can develop various forms of breast cancer, each with different predicted outcomes.
This entry was posted
on Monday, May 18th, 2009 at 1:25 pm by Nancy Cutler.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Print
| 
Email
maybe they cut the wrong one off?
There used to be a time when people wrote on a limb. not this one!
etc..
How I hate Nyack Hospital…