My Cousin Bret — Youngest Man Ever to be Diagnosed with Breast Cancer
“When the Doctor Called with the News I Thought He was Joking, but it was No Joke.”
Prairie Village, Kansas (March 6, 2014) — Most people think Prairie Village is a small town in the middle of nowhere but it is actually a large town right in the middle of Metropolitan Kansas City.
Most people think only women get breast cancer but men can get it too, even young men like my cousin Bret Miller. A star high school athlete at Shawnee Mission High School in Prairie Village, he felt a lump on his right breast when he was only 17. When he asked the doctor about this, the doctor told him it was a calcium build-up and to keep an eye on it.
The lump never changed in size or appearance, although Bret occasionally noticed a discharge from his nipple.
In April, 2010, when Bret was 24, he went to a different doctor for a routine physical. When he told this doctor he had this lump on his breast for seven years the doctor immediately ordered an ultrasound and a mammogram.
Although the lump was thought to be benign, as a precaution, Bret had a lumpectomy.
“The tumor was only .9 centimeters in size,” Bret recalls, “The next day, however, I got a call from the surgeon to say I had breast cancer and would need a mastectomy.”
After having his right breast removed and undergoing four rounds of chemotherapy, Bret is cancer free. He is lucky though, because male breast cancer can spread faster than female breast cancer simply because the male breast is smaller. Once the cancer get into the lymph nodes it almost always gets into the blood stream. This is why over 400 men a year in the U.S. die from the disease.
One reason few people know about male breast cancer is because men are too embarrassed to talk about it. At first, Bret was one of these men, but after talking a few friends and then to his family he found them to be tremendously supportive, so much so he can’t talk about their support today without tearing up.
“They were by my side, the entire time,” he says.
Today, Bret is one of the few men publicly speaking about male breast cancer. This past Monday, you may have seen him interviewed by Katie Couric on the “katie” show along with fellow male breast cancer survivor, Richard Roundtree, who was the star of the 1971 hit movie Shaft.
Bret wants all men to be aware that they too could become a victim of breast cancer.
“Cancer is not prejudiced,” he warns, “it chooses whoever it wants.”
Bret wants men to know that any change in the breast, chest area or nipple can be a warning sign of breast cancer — all men should look for any of these five common symptoms: (1) a lump, (2) dimpling, puckering or redness of the skin, (3) itchy, scaly sore or rash, (4) pulling in of the nipple (inverted), and (5) nipple discharge. If men notice any of these changes, they should immediately go to a doctor.
Our family is very proud of Bret — he is a hero. His mom, Peggy, is my adopted mom’s cousin so I’m not really one of his biological cousins, but I claim him anyway. And why shouldn’t I?
You can learn more about Bret, other male breast cancer survivors, and about male breast cancer, at the Male Breast Cancer Coalition.
