Loading
Below, week by week, is what OnCo's record of Male breast cancer says about the first two months: the order is typical, the timing is yours to ask about. Men get breast cancer too, usually a hormone-sensitive kind found as a lump near the nipple. It is treated much as in women, with surgery, radiotherapy and tamoxifen, and inherited BRCA2 mutations are found often enough that every man diagnosed is offered genetic testing. The main fix under way is including men in trials so their care stops being borrowed from women. Sections appear only where the record has something to say. Orientation, not medical advice.
Staging tests establish exactly what and where the cancer is. Everything else follows from the answers.
Ask which of these were tested and what the results were; see the report reader for what each value means.
These specialties appear in the standard of care for this cancer. In most centres they meet weekly as a tumour board to agree each plan; you can ask when yours was discussed and what was decided.
A second opinion from a centre that treats many similar cases is normal, not rude; the standard of care tells you what to compare it against.
Each row is a setting from the standard of care, in the order it usually arises. Not all will apply to you; your stage and biomarkers decide which do. The guideline grade, where recorded, says how strong the evidence is.
Mastectomy (or breast conservation where feasible) with sentinel node biopsy; adjuvant radiotherapy by the same criteria as women; chemotherapy and HER2-directed therapy as indicated.
Tamoxifen for five to ten years; aromatase inhibitor only with GnRH agonist suppression if tamoxifen is contraindicated.
Endocrine therapy (tamoxifen, or aromatase inhibitor or fulvestrant with GnRH agonist) with a CDK4/6 inhibitor by extrapolation; chemotherapy for visceral crisis.
PARP inhibitor (olaparib adjuvant per OlympiA; olaparib or talazoparib for metastatic disease) and cascade testing of relatives.
Generated from this cancer's standard of care, biomarkers and open problems. Take the group that matches where you are. To tick, add your own and print, open the one-page appointment sheet.
Trials open now for this cancer in OnCo, largest phase first. Joining a trial is a decision like any other: ask what the comparison arm is, whether a placebo is used, and what happens if you leave. The cancer page searches ClinicalTrials.gov live for more.
Much of what helps in the first weeks is free if you know to ask: testing, helplines, rides and lodging, second opinions, trial travel.
Every term links to the glossary.