Information about breast cancer

Men can also get breast cancer

About 100 men in Belgium are treated with breast cancer every year. All too often, they remain under the radar. That's why Oct. 7 is their day: the International Day of the Breast Cancer Man.

Breast CancerMAN is an association that advocates for the interests of men with breast cancer. The non-profit organization helps spread breast cancer awareness, encourages men to engage in self-examination, represents them where necessary and provides advice and assistance to individual patients. 'That awareness is still desperately needed,' André Pauwels, chairman of Breast CancerMAN told Pink Ribbon. 'Not only the population, but also the medical sector does not pay enough attention to breast cancer in men,' he says, 'Fortunately, there are some breast cancer specialists who do have an eye for our needs.' And what about the men themselves?

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Patrick Bastiaens thought he was the first man in Belgium with breast cancer. He had a lump under his nipple, but did not worry about it. "I didn't even know breast cancer existed in men!" he responds. Bastiaens was diagnosed in 2016, he got there in time and the tumor was removed. 'My breast is gone, but I don't miss it. It's different with women, for them a breast is not just a breast'. Patrick responded to Pink Ribbon 's call for (former) breast cancer patients to design a ribbon. "I have immense respect for women with breast cancer.

André Pauwels, himself an ex-breast cancer patient, spares no expense to raise awareness of the disease among men. Breast CancerMAN, founded by 5 men with breast cancer, including André, does not have that many members. 'We have about 35 - 40. Not many, but men generally have less need for fellow-sufferer contact. Many get in touch once or twice to find out about the disease, and that's it.' Fortunately, there are diehards like André who continue to work for greater recognition and awareness. 'October, by annual custom, is dedicated to breast cancer. On October 7, Breast CancerMAN draws special attention to breast cancer in men. That's our international day," André says. 'Our pink ribbon has a blue border, and for the international day even a mustache and a hat.' Breast CancerMAN has more in store, a theater performance on Oct. 6 in Opwijk, for example. They don't sit still, those men with breast cancer. Be sure to take a look at their website.

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Breast Cancer
Awareness
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Metastases... what now?

Malignant cells can invade other tissues. In this way, cancer cells can break away from the original tumor and be carried along with the blood or lymph. There they can settle in other places in the body and continue to divide. Thus, they form a new tumor somewhere else in the body.
Breast Cancer
Awareness
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Pink Ribbon : "Far too little attention is paid to the group of patients with the most severe diagnoses" 

Breast cancer is diagnosed more than 11,000 times a year in Belgium, 100 times more often in women than in men. Thanks to the spectacular progress in breast cancer detection and treatment, there is a lot of good news to tell: more than 9 out of 10 women with non-proliferating breast cancer survive at least 5 years after diagnosis. And 8 in 10 breast cancers, moreover, will never metastasize. But that's not the whole story! In Belgium, between 2,300 and 2,500 women die annually from breast cancer, because 2 out of 10 breast cancers do metastasize sooner or later. As a result, breast cancer remains the leading cause of death among women affected by cancer.
Breast Cancer
BRCA
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Hereditary breast cancer is not a doomsday scenario; there are solutions

Ten percent of all breast cancers are hereditary. That means there are abnormal genes in the hereditary material that greatly increase the risk of breast cancer. The best-known breast cancer genes are BRCA1 and BRCA2 (BRCA stands for BReastCAncer). They are passed down from generation to generation. Men can also inherit these genes and pass them on to their offspring. Moreover, both breast cancer genes are dominant. If one of your parents carries the gene, you have a 50 percent chance of inheriting it.

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