Male Breast Cancer Musings
So much for State Cancer Profiles!
“Thank you for your interest in our web site.
Unfortunately, we do not publish male breast cancer statistics nor do we
received data for that cancer site for that county.
I would suggest checking with the Maryland Department of Health or
Frederick county.”
http://apps.nccd.cdc.gov/cancercontacts/npcr/contact.asp?contactId=202
I’m looking for other men willing to share their stories. Two new areas of the site that I am currently working on are The Faces of Cancer and The Faces of Cancer Care.
The Faces of Cancer will be for individual stories, photos are optional, and the stories can be submitted anonymously if desired.
The Faces of Cancer Care will be photos and stories from the caregivers at Hopkins and family members/friends of male cancer patients.
If you would be interested in sharing your story, please contact me.
Thanks,
Cat
We are still waiting for a response from the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene so I thought I would talk about chemo day.
Once a week, since mid July we have been driving to Johns Hopkins in Baltimore for chemo treatments. Yes it’s a long day, about 1 and 1/2 hours each way, but I can’t say enough about the wonderful people at Hopkins! After 45 radiations treatments, monthly and now weekly treatments, multiple surgeries, hospitalizations and doctor visits I think my car (and my nerves) would benefit from auto-pilot. 
If you have never been there, Hopkins is a huge medical campus. Forturnately, most everything we need to do is in the Sidney Kimmell Cancer Center in the Weinburg building. A typical chemo day goes like this:
Yay, our appointment today was at noon! No rush hour traffic getting there, a small blessing in itself! The evening rush hour was another matter entirely. We stopped in admitting to get registered. After all this time, Mike and Pam know us well and we spent a few minutes chatting after completing all the joyous paperwork. Next, it was upstairs for blood work. Joe has a portacath so it makes life a little bit easier, no worry about collapsed veins and once the port is accessed they can draw his blood, give him his pre-meds and chemo with one needle stick. Marilyn is an expert at accessing ports and always gets it right the first time. It takes a one inch long needle so getting it on the first shot means so very much.
To be continued….
I knew of a few cases of male breast cancer in my immediate area but when I reviewed the comments related to the Frederick News Post interview I realized there were more cases than I had imagined. I decided to contact the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) to determine if they had any statistical data to support my concerns. The information posted below is the response I received. I will continue to pursue this to determine if there is in fact a cancer cluster in this area.
Thank you for your inquiry to CDC-INFO. In response to your request for information on breast cancer cases in men in your area, we are pleased to provide you with the following relevant information.
Based on Public Law 101-354, which established CDC’s National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (NBCCEDP), men are not eligible to receive screening or diagnostic services through the program.
A cancer cluster is defined as a greater-than-expected number of cancer cases that occurs within a group of people in a geographic area over a period of time. Cancer clusters are often suspected when people report that several family members, friends, neighbors, or co-workers have been diagnosed with cancer. Statistical methods and cancer registry data are used to determine whether a greater than expected number of cancer cases has occurred.
Even when a cluster is confirmed, investigators may not be able to determine the cause because cancer is usually the result of a combination of factors that interact in ways that are not yet fully understood and cancer-causing exposures may have occurred many years before, making them more difficult to document. Cases of cancer are more likely to represent a cluster if they involve any of the following:
*a large number of cases of one type of cancer, rather than several different types;
*a rare type of cancer rather than a common type; and
*a number of a certain type of cancer in age groups not usually affected by that cancer.
Local or state health departments provide the first level of response to a suspected cancer cluster. These agencies, along with the state cancer registry, collect and analyze local-level data and calculate expected and actual cancer rates.
To report a suspected cancer cluster in your area, contact your state health department or state cancer registry:
Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
201 West Preston Street, Suite 500
Baltimore, MD 21201
phone: (410) 767-6500
fax: (410) 767-6489
email: healthmd@dhmh.state.md.us
web: http://www.dhmh.state.md.us/
For general information on cancer clusters, you may want to visit CDC’s Cancer Clusters website or the National Cancer Institute (NCI) cancer cluster website:
Cancer Clusters
National Center for Environmental Health, Division of Environmental Hazards and Health Effects
http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/clusters/
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
National Institutes of Health (NIH), 1-800-4-CANCER
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/clusters
For information on specific cancers and cancer in general, the best sources are the NCI and the American Cancer Society (ACS). These organizations provide information on the whole range of cancer issues, such as causes, risk factors, prevention, detection, symptoms, treatment, clinical trials, and support groups. Information is available on their websites or by calling their toll-free numbers:
American Cancer Society
1-800-ACS-2345
http://www.cancer.org
Information on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) efforts and programs to control certain cancers (breast, cervical, colorectal, prostate, skin, and ovarian) is available on the CDC Cancer Prevention and Control website:
http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/
Links provided to non-Federal organizations are provided solely as a service to our users. These links do not constitute an endorsement of these organizations or their programs by CDC or the Federal Government, and none should be inferred. The CDC is not responsible for the content of the individual organization web pages found at these links
Thank you for contacting CDC-INFO Contact Center. Please do not hesitate to call 1-800-CDC-INFO, e-mail cdcinfo@cdc.gov or visit http://www.cdc.gov if you have any additional questions.
CDC-INFO is a service of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). This service is provided by Vangent, Inc. under contract to CDC and ATSDR.
Hello and welcome,
I’ve created this blog to provide a place to discuss male breast cancer and keep you updated on my husbands progress. I’ve also created a category, CDC, to keep local readers updated on information related to the incidence of MBC in this area.
Cat
