Father Details Battle With Breast Cancer
Doctor Says Male Breast Cancer On Rise
POSTED: Friday, June 19, 2009
UPDATED: 11:19 am EDT June 22,
2009
ORLANDO, Fla. -- A local father of three is breaking the stereotype about breast cancer being a woman's disease.
VIDEO: Man Battles Breast Cancer
More and more men are being diagnosed with breast cancer and Ben Cole is fighting the disease.Cole discovered a lump in his left breast six years ago."When they first told me, I said 'You have to find someone else. That is not me. Men don't have breast cancer,' " Cole said.In fact, breast cancer is most common in men in their early-60s, which is when Cole was diagnosed."They confirmed that it was male breast cancer. I had a 1.5 centimeter lesion and they removed by left breast," Cole said.Oncologist Dr. Nikita Shah said a mastectomy is the typical treatment for men with breast cancer."Men are typically treated with a mastectomy -- removal of the whole breast – because there is not a lot of breast tissue that you have. Where in women, you would do a lumpectomy, where you only remove the part of the breast around the tumor," Shah said.Shah is Cole's doctor at M.D. Anderson. She said there are a lot of similarities between male and female breast cancer."Breast cancer pretty much presents pretty much the same way in men as in women. It can present with a lump. It can present with nipple discharge. It can present with skin changes, or the nipple may get inverted," Shah said.Shah said male breast cancer is staged and treated in the same way as female breast cancer.Cole said he has learned an important lesson from his experience, and he hopes his children will learn from it too."Just be tuned in to your own body and if you notice any irregularities, go have it checked out as soon as possible," Cole said.Shah said men should do a self breast exam just like they do a testicular exam. She also said breast cancer in men is often not detected until a lump forms, whereas women may find it sooner because of an abnormal mammogram. Copyright 2009 by Internet Broadcasting Systems and Local6.com.
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