If you’re a male, this article is made exclusively for you. This is most especially true if you think that you are impervious to having breast cancer because you believe that it’s a deadly disease that can only affect women. The truth is it’s very much possible for a male to also suffer from breast cancer!
Keep on reading to know some of the most important things you need to know about breast cancer in males. After checking out the entirety of this article, make sure that you share it online in order to let your male family members and friends that none of them are invulnerable to breast cancer.
Why It Happens?
Everyone is born with a small amount of breast tissue, male and female alike. During puberty, however, females grow more breast tissue while males do not. However, the fact remains that males still have some breast tissue, and it’s for this reason why males may also have breast cancer.
However, doctors say that breast cancer in men is quite rare. But this doesn’t mean that it can never strike. When some of the breast cells that a man has begin to divide faster than normal, a tumor may form that can easily spread to neighboring tissues or other areas of the body.
Who is at Risk?
Some cases of breast cancer in women are due to a mutated gene that can be passed from parents to offspring. So in other words, there are some forms of breast cancer that can run in families. The same can be said for breast cancer that can affect males.
If you have a family member, whether male or female, who is diagnosed with breast cancer, you may be at risk of developing it as well. Other risk factors for male breast cancer, according to experts, include being 60 years old or older, exposure to estrogen, obesity and liver disease.
What are the Symptoms?
The signs and symptoms of breast cancer in women are pretty much the same as breast cancer in men. If you have male breast cancer, you may notice the presence of a lump in the breast tissue. The skin of the breast may also change in appearance, usually in the form of dimpling or redness.
It’s also possible for you to notice redness or scaling of the nipple. At times it may become inverted. Seeing discharge from the nipple is also a telltale sign of male breast cancer. Needless to say, even males need to be very observant if they want to detect male breast cancer early on.
How is It Diagnosed?
There are a number of diagnostic exams and procedures available for determining the presence of breast cancer in males. Clinical breast examination and the use of imaging tools are some of them. Biopsy, which is the removal of breast cells for testing, is also commonly done.
After the presence of breast cancer in a man is established, determining its extent is the next step. Such can be carried out by means of computerized tomography or CT scan and positron emission tomography or PET scan. A bone scan may be conducted as well.
How is It Treated?
Just like breast cancer in women, male breast cancer is easier to treat during its early stages. In treating male breast cancer, the doctor will first have to establish certain things such as the stage of the cancer, the overall health status of the individual and also the patient’s preferences.
Via surgery, the tumor as well as the surrounding tissue is removed. In some cases, all of the breast tissue are removed and sometimes the nipple and areola, too. Chemotherapy is form of treatment that is often used after surgery. Radiation and hormone therapies are other treatments options.
