Testing It Up

Breast cancer is generally seen as a disease common to women, but it can also afflict men, albeit rarely. But when men do have it, however, it is often deadlier, as determined by a recent study.

Men who develop breast cancer often do not survive as long as women who have the disease, primarily because the cancer is detected at a later stage. This may be because breast is cancer is a disease that is associated too much with women that most men do not realize that they can get it, and are not as sensitive to the warning signs.

The study determined that breast tumors in men are larger at diagnosis, more advanced, and more likely to have spread to other parts of the body. They are also diagnosed later in life, at an average age of 63, compared to 59 years old in women.

Dr. David Winchester, a breast cancer surgeon in NorthShore University HealthSystem in suburban Chicago who was not involved in the study, shared: “It’s not really been on the radar screen to think about breast cancer in men.”

The study involved an analysis of 10 years of national data on breast cancer cases, from 1998 to 2007. The data included those from 13,457 male patients diagnosed during that time period, in a database that contains about 75 percent of all breast cancer cases in the United States.

The study, described as the biggest study yet on breast cancer in men, also found that women with breast cancer lived two years longer than men with the disease.

Breast cancer is more commonly regarded as a woman’s disease, but it can certainly strike any gender, albeit at a smaller rate. This makes the experience of Mike Story certainly unique.

Mike Story is Executive Vice President of Advantage Home Telehealth, Inc., a medical-device company. His wife, Kelly, was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 46, as shared in a feature by CBS News. Mike supported Kelly throughout her more than two-year battle with breast cancer, which included accompanying her for treatments at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI).

A year after Kelly’s death, the RPCI website shares that Mike received a shocking diagnosis: he, too, has breast cancer, the disease that claimed the life of his beloved wife, and the disease has metastasized to his bones.

Now, Mike Story is once again visiting RPCI, this time as a patient. His Roswell Park care team, which includes his late wife’s oncologist, Dr. Tracey O’Connor, has put together a treatment plan for Mike. Mike shared: “There’s a whole lot that’s gone on in the last few years. There’s a lot that comes at you… It’s life. You deal with it and you get through it.”

Mike and Kelly have a 20-year old daughter, Carly, who is in her third year at Canisius College. Father and daughter shared their story with CBS’ The Early Show, and both expressed commitment to spreading awareness about the disease, and supporting efforts towards fighting it. Just this June, Carly participated as co-captain for a team during the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.

We have introduced the reality of breast cancer in men in the previous post. Today, we share with you some of the famous male personalities who, at one time or another, had to battle against breast cancer.

Most men who survived breast cancer have been active in promoting awareness about this disease. Although it has already been established that survival rates for female and male breast cancer patients are similar, most male cases are diagnosed in later stages making it more difficult to manage.

Ernest Green. After finding a small lump in his chest in July of 2005, former American football fullback Ernest Green was diagnosed with breast cancer. A couple of months later, he underwent mastectomy and started 8 chemotherapy sessions until March of 2006. Green has two older sisters also diagnosed with breast cancer.

Tucker Melancon. He is an American judge in the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana. He was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2002 and is now a Board Member of the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship.

Robert Ray Roddy†. Rod Roddy of “The Price Is Right” was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2001 and breast cancer in 2003. He then became an advocate of the early detection of cancer, saying he could have prevented the progress of the diseases with a colonoscopy and a mammogram. He died on October 27, 2003.

Richard Roundtree. The original “John Shaft” of the popular film series Shaft (1971), Shaft’s Big Score (1972) and Shaft in Africa (1973) was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1993 and had to go through a double mastectomy and chemotherapy.