Doctors often don't accept that a man, especially a young one, can have breast cancer. When male breast cancer survivors tell their stories, it's remarkable to hear them discuss terms mammograms, lumpectomy, tamoxifen, reconstructive surgery that have become associated so completely with women. Breast cancer accounts for some 26 percent of malignancies in women, but only 0.2 percent of malignancies in men. Recovering patients say the exceeding rarity of male breast cancer, combined with shame and a reluctance to talk by many who suffer from it, contributes to a deadly silence about the disease. Tumors are often caught later in men, sometimes resulting in the cancer spreading to other organs.
Most men are ashamed about it.
If the conversation gets around to where I can get a word in, I tell everyone I see about it. The relationship between male and female breast cancer patients can also be complicated. Lyons wanted to participate in Portland's Race for the Cure 5K run, which benefits breast cancer research and honors survivors, with his wife and family. But race organizers balked, citing a policy that only women could run. But we felt shunned and discriminated against.