“Breast Cancer in Men: Diego’s Story and the Need for Awareness”

The statistics confirm it: 30% of cancers diagnosed in females are breast cancer but these only represent 1% in the case of males. In fact, this man from Extremadura always carries a medical report with him detailing the disease he is suffering from, to prevent the people he tells it from thinking that he is kidding them.

I had never heard it

There are many who ask why Diego is a well-known character in his city, where he was a councilor in the town hall (in the 1991-1995 legislature) and owned a mattress. “People didn’t believe it, I had to meet them the next day to show them the report and they would take me seriously, now I carry it with me just in case”, tells this newspaper with the humor that characterizes him and that he has not lost despite still fighting this battle. He is not surprised by the reaction of those who doubt because he never imagined that this could happen to him; neither had he heard that breast cancer attacked men too.

It all started at the end of October last year. When one morning while toweling off getting out of the shower, she noticed a “hypersensitivity” in her nipple right. “Just with the touch of the towel I felt something strange,” she recalls. He didn’t care. But the next day, same thing. So He decided to feel both nipples and found that they did not have the same texture: one (the right) was harder than the other, it had a lump. He told his family about it, but they didn’t pay attention either. “They told me it could be a lump of fat,” he says. A ‘diagnosis’ that convinced him.

But how did that go on? decided to visit his GP to consult it. She told him to take off his shirt and he touched both breasts. Right away He raised her arm to do the same in the armpits, where the sentinel nodes are.Where can this type of cancer spread? «I have found out about this now because then I had no idea of ​​anything», recognize. The doctor wrote a report and warned her that if they had not called her in a month, she should come back to the office. Nothing was said at that time about cancer. He didn’t suspect it either, but he did believe that something strange was happening.

Fifteen days after that appointment at the health center, he received a call asking him to come urgently for a mammogram and an ultrasound.. He immediately interrupted the conversation:

-Like a mammogram? I’m a man! How are you going to do it to me?»

-“Don’t worry, come on, everything will be fine”.

He had no problem. She came over and grabbed the machine, which is the stance one takes when undergoing such a test. It’s as if she were hugging the team, that she crushes her breasts between two plates to be able to take the image. That was her fear, because hers barely have enough mass for him to catch the device. Or that’s what he thought. “Apparently the machine sucks your breast, but I did not know this”, point. In the image that appeared on the computer he observed “a little white dot” in the right breast, but he did not tell the radiologists anything. Then he went to the ultrasound. “The doctor was wearing a mask but in his eyes you could see that something was happening”, remember. He didn’t ask either, he says that he doesn’t like to do it so as not to bother, although perhaps that was more out of fear. For fear of being told what no one would ever want to hear.

The next day they called him in for a biopsy. «I told him how quickly they had called me. And she answered me that she had not done it for me the day before because she had no room, “she points out. The speed at which everything happened was making his suspicions grow and also she already knew about breast cancer in men because she had read something on the internet. But, despite the doubts, during the biopsy he did not ask either. She waited almost 20 days for the result of that test to confirm what deep down she already knew: she had breast cancer.

“A breast cancer to me?”

“They were the worst days of my life, I thought about everything, I tried to continue with my life, but it was impossible”, remember. She didn’t sleep (now neither). She did not understand how this had come to happen to him: «Cancer can happen to anyone, but what about breast cancer? and me? What have I done to have it? account. It was a blow because the diagnosis was coupled with hopelessness that he was among the 1% that suffers from it. “And I don’t win the lottery”joke.

Yes, he was lucky in something: he was caught in time, which is unusual in men. Since there are no screenings for them and the population is so little aware that this tumor also affects men, when they notice something strange in their breasts they do not give it importance. For this reason, when they go to the doctor, it is often too late.

This diagnosis was for Diego the beginning of a process that continues today. Six chemotherapy sessions were prescribed to try to reduce the tumor as much as possible. A few days ago he just finished the last one and the lump is already 50% smaller. But it has not been easy. After the second, his hair fell out. He happened to her in a bar, having a few beers with his friends. He felt an itch on his head and when he touched himself, he kept the locks in his hand. He quickly asked for the bill and left. «LThe tears that fell were like fists», remember. Then he told her daughter to shave her head. And she accepted it. From there the rest of the chemos were “a horror”. «A lot of fatigue, a lot of stress, a lot of anxiety, I couldn’t eat,…». It has even affected her balance, so now she uses a cane to walk. She has fallen twice and doesn’t want it to happen again.

will remove the breast

The next step will be to intervene to remove the breast., probably at the end of May. They will only remove the right, but they will continue to check both in case cancer appears on the left. «This in a woman can be a shock because it is not easy to assume but it does not matter to me, it will be one more scar »he claims.

Breast cancer in men seems to be closely linked to a genetic mutation that is passed from father to son: As in women, 50% of those detected turn out to be hereditary. For this reason, when a man is diagnosed with this disease, he undergoes a genetic study. This is how he explains it the coordinator of the Hereditary Cancer Genetic Council Unit, Santiago González. “When it is detected in a man, it is of interest to him, especially to rule out something hereditary behind it, and even more so if the patient is young”Explain.

Same protocol and treatment

For the rest, the protocol and treatment are exactly the same in a man as in a woman: «Chemo, radio and hormone therapy in the event that the tumor depends on female hormones», points out the doctor. And it also behaves the same in both cases: «It can metastasize in any organ such as bones, liver, lung, …».

The only difference is that they are detected more frequently in earlier stages. “When they notice it, they don’t give it any importance, but the tumor continues to grow and when they consult the family doctor, the diagnosis is often late”warns González. They also differ in incidence, which in men is infinitely lower precisely because the size of their breasts is much smaller. “Cancer forms in the mammary duct which, being smaller, the risk of it originating is lower”, he argues. In addition to the fact that most breast cancers are “hormone dependent” and men logically have fewer female hormones.

The recommendation? Let them feel the breasts and armpits and, if they notice something strange, go to the doctor. That was what Diego did. And it was a success. He has been lucky but it has taken its toll on a psychological level. He takes refuge in his good humor and tries to hide his pain for not worrying his family, but he admits that sometimes he needs to cry. There are nights when he gets up at four in the morning, goes to the sofa in the living room, without anyone listening, and cries. A lot. It vents. Then she goes to bed, and in the morning she promises herself to get up stronger. Always ahead.

He has already managed to ring the bell of the oncology day center in Cáceres, after having finished his chemotherapy sessions. It lacks less to end this nightmare. Meanwhile, in case any man reads you in these pages, He only gives them one piece of advice: «Breast cancer in men also exists. Very little, but it exists. That’s why, man, touch your boobs!”