When you think of breast cancer you probably think of it affecting women.
But every year men get breast cancer, too.
David Dabbs is a breast cancer survivor.
“It was in the summer of 2012 I had a growth come up on my chest,” Dabbs explained. “They sent it to two or three labs and it came back as breast cancer and it was stage 3.”
Dabbs says the diagnosis took him by surprise.
“You think it’s a woman’s disease,” Dabbs said. “The doctors told me they were going to treat me just like they would a woman. I started chemo in October 2012 and did five months of chemo. Then in March I had a mastectomy just like a woman would have. Then I had 28 straight days of radiation.”
Breast cancer in men is very rare.
“1 in a 1,000 as opposed to women it’s 1 in 8,” explained Darla Porter, an oncology nurse practitioner at Covenant’s Joe Arrington Cancer Center.
Porter says even though it is rare, men still need to pay attention to lumps just as much as women do.
“You know men don’t like to go to the doctor but if they feel something abmormal it needs to be checked out,” said Porter. “It’s the same kind of thing; looking for a lump, dimpling in the skin, anything that feels abnormal. Make sure your doctor listens to you and you get an ultrasound or mammogram done so you know for sure.”
Dabbs still gets checked every 6 months.
He says he’s happy he went to the doctor when he did so he can share his story.
“It’s an experience I lived through,” Dabbs explained. “It was difficult at times. The chemo was very, very tough. I had bad side effects of the chemo, but I always tell people I had good side effects of the chemo because I’m still here.”
Porter says risk factors for men include if they had testicular cancer first, there’s a higher chance for breast cancer.
Another risk factor is radiation exposure or a high level of estrogen.
If anyone in a man’s family has breast cancer, he should get tested.
