Our poster abstract “Male Breast Cancer is Infusing a Little Blue into the Sea of Pink” has been accepted for presentation at the 34th Annual Miami Breast Cancer Conference, in Miami Beach Florida on March 9th, 2017.

I have declined to participate in this conference due to the high cost to attend and present at the 2-3 hour Poster Session.  Better use of our resources are available.

Abstract

Male breast cancer (MBC) is a rare disease dominated by a sea of pink. Issues faced by men with this disease include delayed diagnosis, lack of male-specific information, stigma about having a “female disease” and often under-treatment.  MBC is often treated as a female breast cancer but differences between the two are starting to emerge. Drugs such as aromatase inhibitors may not be as effective in men as in women. Men are often older at diagnosis and considered “too old” for more aggressive treatments such as chemotherapy.  Drugs such as tamoxifen can cause side-effects such as weight gain and hot flushes.  Support for patients with MBC is less advanced than that for female breast cancer.  A Man’s Pink, a MBC advocacy organization (www.malebreastcancer.ca) mission is to promote MBC awareness, increase early detection, optimize and increase the survival rates for men diagnosed with breast cancer.  Today’s talk will also discuss MBC incidence data, prognosis and treatment options, myths about MBC, overcoming some of the MBC stigmatisms by the creation of a website for men to discuss and start talking about MBC, as well as well as difficulties encountered by patients and survivors during their treatment and recovery.  Professor John Boyages is a well known Australian breast cancer oncologist and author who, in the last five years, has written three books on breast cancer, the third of these, published in March 2015, is entitled “Male Breast Cancer – Taking Control”.  Since October 2015, John and I have been working closely together on fostering the idea that if we could collaboratively provide a global vehicle for all those directly involved in MBC, including clinicians from all areas, patients, survivors, and advocacy organizations, we could actively spearhead and expand our mission to have actual MBC sessions included in breast cancer and oncology conferences and symposia, globally