Chemotherapy doubts: Male breast cancer

Hi @dianainstaug, welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. I noticed that you wished to post a URL to web resources with your message to @agingrobert. You will be able to add URLs to your posts in a few days. There is a brief period where new members can't post links. We do this to deter spammers and keep the community safe. Clearly the links you wanted to post are not spam, so allow me to post them here.

- Treatment for Breast Cancer in Men https://ww5.komen.org/BreastCancer/MaleBreastCancer.html
- HIS Breast Cancer https://www.hisbreastcancer.org/

Hello Colleen and thanks for the warm welcome. I had many questions for my cancer researcher friend and I did him about the various toxins involved with Chemo, Why 12 weeks of Taxol? Why not 13? Why A/C and Taxol? Aren't they supposed to do the same thing? Assuming these toxins do what they are supposed to, why will I still require radiation? His answer was simple, "everyone's body and cancer are different. treatments throw as much as possible at the cancer in hopes of killing and controlling it, without damaging your body, longer term". I learned from him that It's possible I could survive just as long without undergoing chemo at all, but chemo increases my statistical odds. That was his perspective. I also learned how much we still do NOT know about cancer, and that my cancer WILL return, eventually. It's genetically here and not going away so the trick is to keep it at bay.....and I then get more years. I also learned that other forms of cancer could exist in my body that haven't become tumors yet because my current cancer might be starving those cells. When I was diagnosed with Stage 3 Male Breast Cancer my Oncologist prescribed a "cure" strategy for treatment versus a "control" strategy. I've since learned that these terms are probably not accurate because my cancer will not literally be cured, it will hopefully be controlled. Getting back to my original question about foregoing AC- I worry about nose bleeds associated with AC. Long story, but I have an artery in my sinus area that was weakened by surgery many years ago. If it ruptures I will bleed to death because it cannot be reached. I need to decide if I pass on the AC, or risk bleeding to death. AC can also do permanent heart damage which is another concern of mine, however my heart is strong.

thank you for sharing this information. I did have genetic testing done but need to check with the technician to validate CHEK2. great information!

@agingrobert, how are you doing? Have you made a decision about continuing with chemo or not? Did you talk about it with your oncologist?

Hello Colleen. I'm still undecided. I'm in week 10 of Taxol chemotherapy and plan to complete the 12 week plan, however I'm not sure if I will do the AC toxin, which is prescribed next (for 8 weeks). I learned from my Oncologist that 5 year survival odds worsen by 2 or 3 percent if I bypass AC and move directly to radiation and hormone therapies. Not a huge amount, but enough to think about. I need to talk to more folks who have undergone AC to better understand the experience and risks. Still undecided, but I don't want the cure to be worse than the disease.