All month long we're celebrating
and honoring those who have gone
through breast cancer. Approximately
285,000 people will be diagnosed with
breast cancer in 2021 and almost 3000
of them will be men. There are,
however, more than 3.8 million breast
cancer survivors in EU S today.
Yeah, one of those survivors
is our next guest, Steve Cohn,
who shared his story with us.
Steve, we are really excited to have
you here to talk about an issue that
doesn't get talked about very much.
You and I have something in common.
We're both two time breast cancer survivors,
but you as a male,
I mean that seems to be so rare.
And again, something we don't hear about.
How did you find it?
Kristen and Mark.
Thanks for having me with you today.
Yeah, male breast cancer represents
only 1% of the cases on an annual basis.
In my case, right after I turn 60 in
May of 2010, I noticed what looked
like a red cyst on my left breast.
Didn't hurt, wasn't painful,
but I decided to have my Doctor
Who worked at Mount Sinai was
living in New York at the time.
Check it out.
Really sorry,
walked me down the hall to the Breast
Cancer Center at Mount Sinai and turns
out I had three tumors in my left breast.
A few weeks later,
they did surgery and removed them.
They thought they had caught it early enough
so there was no other follow up necessary.
But then in 2012, the sister reappeared.
Same spot, same general area.
And turns out I had three additional tumors.
Which they removed and at the
same time that was happening,
I moved down to DC from New York.
And I was told I should get radiation
treatment and it's tweets or radiation
treatment at Sibley Memorial Hospital,
and they also put me on a very
common drug for women breast
cancer survivors called tamoxifen,
which maybe Kristen you you?
I was on tamoxifen for seven
years and actually just came
off at about a year ago. So.
You know that was a situation that they
also removed one of my lymph nodes,
but nothing had spread to
any of the lymph nodes.
That's great news. I never forget.
I had, you know, training for a marathon.
And I think men,
we come to your your breast, your chest.
We don't even think about them at all.
And you know when you train for the marathon
and sometimes you have ****** irritation
and there's some blood there or whatever.
And I just remember being freaked out
because that's really the first time I've
even noticed something was different.
You don't really notice that,
and so I imagine like we talked
about self exams guys rarely,
if ever do it.
But for you you know because of you,
people will start paying attention,
so I think it's great and thank
you for sharing your story.
I'm told that breast cancer rarely
appears in men under the age of 60.
In my case, it appeared
right after I turned 16,
so that's very different than women
who obviously can get it at any age.
And I had no family history, you know, so.
But men need that need to be aware,
especially older men. Where
are we at Steve with like research?
You know it's October.
We talked so much about breast cancer
for women and the research there.
What have you seen and learned as you've
kind of gone through this journey?
Well, it's very simple answer.
There is no research for men.
There's never been a clinical study.
They don't think there are enough
men that they can do that with.
So all the follow up procedures.
Are based upon what works for women
and they hope it works for men.
So meaning taking tamoxifen
for instance also.
Men are supposed men.
Survivors are supposed to get annual
mammograms if they have one breast that was
unaffected like mine on the right side.
And believe it or not,
I've had insurance companies
deny paying for my mammogram,
'cause I'm a guy.
That's why you know I thank you guys
so much for having me on today to
point out that men get breast cancer.
Real quick, before we let you go,
what do you say to men who
don't take this seriously?
It can happen to you, right?
So you see what looks like a cyst or
a red spot spot in your breast area.
Don't ignore it. Have it checked out.
We're so glad Steve's doing great,
but what a story and a reminder
for all of us men included.
You know we talked about early detection
all the time and it's as important
for us women as it is for you. Man.
Like we said, Steve noticed
something wasn't right.
He checked it out and he acted
and it probably saved his life.
Great message and reminders. Thank you see.