Male Breast Cancer Survivor Shares His Story

My name is Thomas and I'm a 45 year old male breast cancer survivor.

Last year I was diagnosed with male breast cancer.I have been married for 20+ years and I have two children both boys ages 20 and 17.

The surgery consisted of a mastectomy on my right breast. The results from the surgery showed cancer in the lymphatic system. That was when we had the genetic testing BRCA1 and BRCA2 both turned up negative. I had genome mapping done which also turned up to be negative so my cancer has been determined to be environmental. I wanted to make sure that my children had all the knowledge that I could give them by completing any testing that I could have done.

My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was 35 years old, ended up with ovarian cancer and finally passed 7 years ago of leukemia. My father has chronic leukemia and lung cancer. Needless to say I was waiting for something to happen - I was just very surprised when it ended up being a diagnosis of breast cancer!

The reason I found the tumor in my chest was because I was losing weight so I could have knee surgery. I have lost a significant amount of weight, almost 100 pounds. When I was at my family physician's office getting ready for my knee surgery I asked him what the lump under my skin was and he told me I had to instantly have some testing done.

I had a mastectomy and was set up for further treatment. We started 8 months of chemotherapy followed by aggressive radiation. I guess because of my age they were able to shorten my radiation treatments from 6 months to 3 months. They told me this was done by a more aggressive radiation treatment plan. Currently I am on anti-estrogen medicine. The only true setback has been that my lung was scarred.

Currently we are working to set up a nonprofit. Hopefully this will be able to establish scholarships for children of men with breast cancer.

Thank you for sharing my story…