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Men getting breast cancer? Many unaware, resident says

Mike Schroeder was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006. His wife, Patty Stump, was diagnosed with breast cancer one year and one week after her husband's mastectomy. Staff photo by Apryl Pilolli

Apryl Pilolli/Staff photographer Mike Schroeder was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006. His wife, Patty Stump, was diagnosed with breast cancer one year and one week after her husband's mastectomy. Staff photo by Apryl Pilolli

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By Eric Schwartzberg, Staff Writer 12:25 AM Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Breast cancer does not discriminate by gender.

That’s what Mike Schroeder said learned firsthand, and that’s the message he relates whenever he can to men.

“By the time men do something, it’s way down the road and the odds of recovering ... it’s not nearly as good as women because they are not looking for it,” he said.

The 70-year-old Mason man was not looking for signs of the disease three years ago but that’s exactly what he found — a “hard place” just above one nipple that he almost mistook for an infected hair.

But three weeks later, when the itchy, annoying spot had not dissipated, Schroeder went to his family physician, then a radiologist.

A biopsy confirmed he had the first stage of breast cancer.

In the recovery room following a mastectomy, Schroeder pulled a bedsheet off his chest and discovered what he describes as “a divet” in an area where he was expecting something far worse.

“It was so glaringly apparent to me how devastating that would be for a woman to have to go through it,” Schroeder said.

One year and one week after the operation, Schroeder’s wife, Patty Stump, was diagnosed with the earliest stages of the disease. “I was absolutely devastated,” said Stump, who is now 53. “I couldn’t even talk to people ... and that went on for months.”

Undergoing a lumpectomy and five weeks of radiation five times a week with a husband who already had the disease by her side was “comforting” to a degree but not a complete cure for fear, she said.

“I knew his doctors were my doctors, and I knew that the outcome was going to be good, but I still really struggled with it,” Stump said.

In the time since the dual diagnoses, Schroeder and Stump have been trying to boost awareness about breast cancer, helping to raise thousands of dollars via fundraising walks and emblazoning the words “IHADIT” on a breast cancer awareness license plate decorated with pink ribbons.

“That was my poke at trying to wake people up,” Schroeder said .

According to the American Cancer Society, about 1,910 new cases of breast cancer will be diagnosed among men in the United States in 2009 and about 440 men will die from breast cancer in the United States.

Although the percentage of men diagnosed with breast cancer is minute compared to women, Schroeder surmises that might be because of lack of awareness.

“How many more of them, they just don’t even think of it?” Stump said. “It’s not even diagnosed or it’s metastasized and they die of liver cancer or something else.”

Breast Cancer Risk for Men

Breast cancer is about 100 times less common among men than among women. For men, the lifetime risk of getting breast cancer is about 1 in 1,000.

The outlook for men with breast cancer was once thought to be worse than that for women, but recent studies have not found this to be true. Based on looking at each stage, the survival rates are about equal. In other words, men and women with the same stage of breast cancer have a fairly similar outlook for survival.

Source: American Cancer Society

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