Did you know that a man who has had at least one blood relative on his mother's side with breast cancer is at higher risk of developing the disease himself?
It seems that many don't know – including, most worryingly, those higher-risk men.
A small, new survey in the October issue of the American Journal of Nursing polled 28 men about their knowledge of their breast cancer risk. All the men were at higher risk for male breast cancer because of their family history.
The poll found 79 per cent of the men didn't even know that men could develop breast cancer. A majority of them could not identify any symptoms of male breast cancer other than a lump in the breast (other common symptoms include: a small discharge from the nipple, and breast swelling or tenderness).
All 28 of the men reported that their primary health care provider (usually their family doctor) had never mentioned male breast cancer to them, even though all were at higher risk for the disease.
And 43 per cent said having the disease might cause them to question their masculinity.
"This study provides a first step toward an improved understanding about men's perceptions and knowledge of male breast cancer," study author Eileen Thomas, an assistant professor at the College of Nursing at the University of Colorado Denver, said in a news release from the journal's publisher.
"Male breast cancer is uncommon and so has largely been ignored by the media, general population and health care community," Maureen Shawn Kennedy, editorial director and interim editor-in-chief of the journal, said in the news release.
"Still, nurses in all settings need to raise awareness about male breast cancer among men as well as women, especially those men at high risk for the disease."
Men have breast tissue just like women, and so can develop breast cancer. The disease is rare in Canadian men, accounting for less than one per cent of all breast cancers. It's most commonly diagnosed in men over 60, but can develop in men of all ages.
Breast cancer is more likely to be diagnosed at a more advanced stage in men than in women. The cancer progresses and is treated in men in much the same way it is in women.
Although the rate of female breast cancer has been declining over the last 30 years, the number of breast cancer cases in men relative to the population has remained fairly stable.
