Breast Cancer Could Also Occur In Men

Hello friends, how are you all? I really hope you all to be fine and doing great. I am doing this post of mine very

lately as for thank God the exams are over.

So, now let us give a look at today’s post. Do remember friends, my last post about the harmful effects of underarm anti – per spirant  and deodorants which are thought to cause breast cancer in women. So there I go on with my today’s post which is a continuation of my last post about breast cancer in men as I promised you.

Let me at first give a précised form of what is breast  and what is breast cancer in women and  men.

A breast is either of the two soft, protruding organs on the upper front of a woman’s body in left and right sides containing the mammary glands, that secrete milk after pregnancy and are used to feed the baby milk.

Both men and women develop breasts from the same embryological tissues. However, at puberty, female sex hormones, mainly estrogen, promote breast development, which does not occur in men, due to the higher amount of testosterone and as a result women’s breasts become far more prominent than those of men.

Breast cancer is a malignant tumor that starts in the cells of the breasts. A malignant tumor is a group of cancer cells that can grow into surrounding tissues or spread to distant areas of the body. Breast cancer occurs mainly in women, but, did you know, despite men not having breasts like women, they could also develop breast cancer? Well, most of the time breast cancer in men may be more serious than that in women only because many people do not realize that men also have breast tissue though very little and  so breast cancer in them do not get diagnosed in the early stages often even after symptoms appear and when severe symptoms appear in the higher stages, the cancer is than diagnosed.

Let us also look at the normal structure of the breast for a clear understanding of breast cancer and how this could also develop in men.

The female breast is made up mainly of lobules ( milk producing glands ), ducts ( tiny tubes that carry the milk from lobules to the nipple ) and stroma ( fatty and connective tissues surrounding the ducts and lobules, blood vessels and lymphatic vessels ).  Male breasts lack glandular tissue and keep a flatter and more muscular appearance, whereas, most of the female breast is made up of glandular tissue and the rest is fat . Also male nipples are underdeveloped, although they contain the same structures as female nipples, the do not receive up to level dose of estrogen hormone to get developed fully and so they remain in the immature state. Female nipples receive a surge of estrogen at puberty which stimulates them to develop,enlarge and the milk ducts  develop to help the corresponding development of breast tissue.Most breast cancer begins in the cells that line the ducts and some begin in the cells that line the lobules and so the increased chances and greater prominences of   breast cancer in females than in males

Breast cancer spreads by way of the lymphatic system and it has some important parts that play role in breast cancer spread.

Lymph nodes which are small bean – shaped collections of immune – system cells and are very important in fighting infections, connect by lymphatic vessels which carry lymph fluid away from the breasts and carry waste products and tissue fluid.

Most lymphatic vessels in the breasts connect to lymph nodes under the arms and some connect to nodes inside the chest, and breast cancer cells can enter the lymphatic vessels and start to grow in the lymph nodes. Once the cancer cells are in the lymph nodes, there is greater risk that these cells will get into blood and cancer will then spread to other organs.

Breast cancer is 100 times less common in men than in women and for men, the life time risk of men for getting this cancer is 1 in 1000. The chances of mortality from breast cancer are found to be the same in both men and women.

How Serious Breast Cancer Is In Men

Because men have very little breast tissue, it is easy for the male and his physician to detect any tumorous masses in the area, but this very little breast tissue in male breast can also give rise to a threat as there is little breast tissue, cancer will not have to grow far to reach the nipples, the skin covering the breast or muscles underneath the breasts. So, even though, men get breast cancer less often than women do, when they are first diagnosed they have often been found to have spread to other organs. So, this is a serious concern I think and men should be conscious about any symptoms associated with breast cancer in them so as not get diagnosed with it in the metastasizing stage and consult their doctors soon about this without any shyness.

Further more, because of the chaos of female most often get breast cancer, they often remain anticipated about any warning signs of this cancer, on the other hand men ignore any warning signs such as any breast lumps as they tend to think that the lumps might have been caused due to an infection and also, sometimes they get embarrassed on finding any lumps in their breasts, and fear that they might be questioned about their masculinity. Altogether, diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer in males get delayed and the cancer gets enough time to spread to a threatening level.

I think, after reading this post, any male viewers of mine will be alert of this thing and also make their friends and family alert about this thing. As friends, this is really not a thing of embarrassment rather is the time to get conscious about this new health problem.

Men need to know that breast cancer is no only limited to women and they could also get diagnosed with it. Some of the symptoms of breast cancer in men include :

-          A lump or swelling, which is usually painless but not always

-          Skin dimpling or puckering

-          Nipple turning inward

-          Redness of the nipple and the breast skin

-          Nipple discharge

-          Nipple bleeding

So, similar to women, men also might be at risk of getting exposed to the harmful effects of the underarm anti – per spirants and deodorants which is though to cause breast cancer.

Those men are at a higher risk of breast cancer with a strong family history of breast cancer even among the female members of the family and it might be useful if they under go advanced  screening examination to detect breast cancer in them.

I hope, today’s post was really very useful and informative for you all specially for the male viewers. And till the next post, stay healthy and passionate and keep blogging