ORLANDO, Fla. — Listening to his wife may have helped save James Keegan’s life.
His wife had noticed a hard lump in his breast about the size of a pea.
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Keegan said he was reluctant to get it checked, brushing it off as an ingrown hair or pimple. But he listened to her, went to a doctor and found out he had breast cancer.
He’s one of an increasing number of men to face the diagnosis. The American Cancer Society said over the last two years, the chance of a man being diagnosed with breast cancer went from 1 in every 1,000, to about 1 in every 800.
Read: Breast Cancer Awareness Month: 9 things to watch out for
Keegan immediately had a mastectomy and started a year of chemotherapy.
“This really happened to me, it wasn’t a joke,” he said.
It’s that same initial hesitancy in men, lack of treatment information and rare visits to the doctor that Tracy Jacim, from the Florida Breast Cancer Foundation, said plays a role in the growing number of breast cancer diagnoses in men.
Read: UCF researchers working to minimize bone damage in breast cancer patients
She said although diagnoses in women still dominate, men are dying from the disease faster due to late diagnoses.
“Men die at a 19% faster rate than women,” she said.
Jacim said most doctors don’t recommend mammograms to men unless there’s a history of breast cancer in their family.
Watch: Q&A with AdventHealth: Breast cancer
Keegan family’s had no past history of breast cancer. If it wasn’t for his wife, he could have missed a pivotal window for treatment.
Doctors encourage men to examine and touch their breasts lying down and standing up, down from their collar bone and around their nipples.
Read: Breast Cancer Awareness Month: How can you limit your risk?
The Florida Breast Cancer Foundation is hosting its Race 2 Cure 5K and Tribute Walk on Oct. 22. It’s at the Oviedo Mall and starts at 7 a.m. It was originally scheduled to be at Fort Mellon Park in Sanford, but was relocated due to flooding.
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