Men Can Also Have Breast Cancer

After extensive research, doctors from San Antonio, Texas are trying to encourage men to consider getting tested for genes that raise the risk of breast cancer. According to them, male relatives of women with such genes often realize that they too may carry them. And at the same time, face greater risks of developing male breast cancer, as well as prostate, pancreatic and skin cancer.

"Everyone thinks of breast and ovarian cancer and just assumes it's all women. They don't even realize these genes can be inherited from the father's side of the family," a Dr. Mary Daly of the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia said.

After seeing breast cancer in several male patients, a further study was conducted until finally concluding that men, especially those who are related to someone who had this disease should take a gene test.

However, it seems that very few men want to.

Breast cancer is the most common major cancer in American women. More than 178,000 new cases, and more than 40,000 deaths from it, are expected in the U.S. this year. But men get it, too — about 2,030 cases are estimated to occur this year, accounting for about 1 percent of all breast cancer cases, according to the American Cancer Society. About 450 of these male cases will prove fatal.