Any diagnosis of cancer can be devastating for a person to receive, but a man being told he has male breast cancer might seem almost impossible. “That’s a woman’s disease!” is the most common response.
A breast cancer diagnosis can cause a wide range of other feelings, such as denial, helplessness, anger, anxiety and fear. Another commonly heard phrase is, “Why me?”
Treatment Options
The main treatment options are:
- Surgery
- Radiation therapy
- Chemotherapy
- Hormonal therapy
All of these are effective at saving lives, but they each come with their own set of side effects which can diminish your quality of life in the short term.
Surgery
Any surgery will be painful to a certain extent, and take time to recover from. Removal of a male breast can lead to an initial uncomfortable stretching of the skin.
The main side effects in addition to post-surgical pain will include:
- Temporary swelling
- A change in the appearance of the breast which might be upsetting
- Bleeding at the surgical site
- Hematoma, a build-up of blood in the wound
- Seroma, a build-up of clear fluid in the wound
- Infection at the wound site
Following all of your doctor’s instructions for wound care to prevent infection, and safe and effective pain relief, can help you heal more quickly.
Radiation
Radiation targets the area near the tumor to try to kill off any cells that might have been missed. However, radiation can cause a number of short-term side effects, including:
- Fatigue
- Changes to the skin that are like sunburn
- Damage to some of the nerves in the arm
- Swelling in the arm
One very rare complication of radiation therapy to the breast is another type of cancer called angiosarcoma, which can grow and spread quickly. Seeing your doctor regularly for follow up should help identify this risk early and treat it.
Chemotherapy
The goal of any breast cancer treatment is to get rid of all the cancer in order to offer the best possible chance of survival. Chemotherapy is designed to destroy any cancer cells that may have spread from the breast to other parts of the body. Chemotherapy is effective for many people, but not without side effects, which can include:
- Tiredness
- Hair loss
- Nausea and vomiting, and dehydration as a result
- Mouth sores
- Loss of appetite (or increased appetite)
- Low blood cell counts
Chemo can affect the blood-forming cells of the bone marrow, which can lead to:
- Increased chance of infections from too few white blood cells being produced, which weakens the immune system
- Easy bruising or bleeding from too few blood platelets, which help the blood to clot
- Fatigue from too few red blood cells or a lack of appetite, nausea and vomiting, which can all lead to an imbalanced diet
These side effects are usually short-term and go away after treatment is finished. However, it is important to report any side effects to your oncologist because there are often a range of ways to lessen them, such as giving you a medication to help reduce the nausea.
Hormonal Therapy
Some types of breast cancer have a hormonal component; that is, spread as a result of hormonal activity. Therefore, suppressing certain hormonal activity can suppress the cancerous activity. In this case, altering the balance of the hormones can result in a range of side effects, including:
- Loss of sexual desire
- Trouble having an erection
- Weight gain
- Hot flashes
- Mood swings
The drug used might also have its own set of particular side effects to watch out for.
It is important to discuss any side effects with your cancer care team, because there may be ways to treat them and give you a more successful outcome.
