Some of you are quite familiar with our Advisory Board member Richard Wassersug, an internationally recognized expert on androgen deprivation therapy in men. Richard is a research psychologist, and last year we connected him with Peggy Miller at the Male Breast Cancer Coaliton who moderates our Men’s Breast Cancer virtual group. They and others are pursuing a study on how male BCa patients respond to the word ‘survivor’. In Richard’s words:
(Peggy), I and others are collaborating on a survey study right now about how male breast cancer patients respond to the label “survivor”. As you may know, female breast cancer patients overall like that label. In contrast, prostate cancer patients typically do not. We hope to finding out whether this difference is due to a differences in how the two diseases progression and how they are treated, or instead reflect a fundamental sex/gender difference.
We’ve already collected data on about 70 male breast cancer patients, but we hope to double that.
Richard published an essay in Quilette late last month on male breast cancer “Masculinity, Emasculation, and Breast Cancer in Men”…. you’ll find it here. If you are not too familiar with this condition, it has every right to be considered a rare disease based on the number it afflicts ….. although, as Richard points out, male BCa kills more than testicular cancer! Read and learn ….