When it comes to breast cancer awareness, it seems the overall education is geared towards breast cancer in women. Though breast cancer in men is very rare (less than 1 percent of all breast cancer diagnoses occur in men), it’s important to remember that both cis and transgender men can be diagnosed, too.
“Breast cancer in men is uncommon, but that’s what makes it dangerous,” says Dr. Beatriz Amendola of the Innovative Cancer Institute in Miami, Florida. “Because breast cancer in males is so uncommon, it has been widely ignored by the public, the media, and many healthcare professionals.”
Because of the dangerous lack of awareness, Dr. Amendola says that when men are finally diagnosed with breast cancer, “it tends to be at a more advanced stage than with breast cancer in women.” She notes that approximately 40 percent of men with breast cancer receive a diagnosis in stage 3 or stage 4, “when the disease has already spread to other parts of the body.”