George Scriven could not believe his own ears when his physician told him that he has breast cancer. He could hardly breath, and he was in a state of shock and disbelief. It sent him reeling and, as he fainted in the clinic, his doctor ran to catch him.
Last December Jeff, from Birmingham, became one of the 300 men who are diagnosed with breast cancer every year in UK. Jeff had a full mastectomy and lymph node dissection. He is currently taking tamoxifen and has no evidence of breast cancer.
"My doctor grabbed me before I landed on the floor, and lay me on the couch to recover from the shock," says Jeff, now 48. "He told me that many men react like that - it's such a jolt to the system."
Most men who are diagnosed with breast cancer do not want to talk about it since this is a taboo subject for them. This is understandable since people generally do not view breast cancer occurring to male. Men who are diagnosed with breast cancer somehow feel that breast cancer make them an inadequate male. They feel strange in the breast cancer clinic surrounded by female patients.
"I went through hell," he says, shaking his head. "I've always been a real man's man - I did a hard, manual job and provided for my family."
"I thought it strange I was in a breast clinic surrounded by female patients. I even wondered if I was in the right place" says Jeff.
Men who have inherited the BRCA2 mutation have a high risk of developing breast cancer. Any male who is diagnosed with breast cancer should have genetic test to rule out BRCA2 mutation. Each year an estimated 1,690 men are diagnosed with breast cancer in the United States. |
