Male breast cancer with bone metastasis

Hi @tamborazo — I'm sorry to hear about your friend. That's a pretty large tumor, but men aren't usually watching for one. Since breast cancer is much less common in men, I'm curious if your friend has the BRCA 1 or 2 mutation. If so, about how old is he if I can ask? My son is BRCA2+ and just turned 40 so I'm encouraging him to start his screenings.

I'm hoping you'll get responses from males with BC. I have female MBC (stage 4) with a tumor in the chest wall and pectoral muscle 7 years post mastectomy (2nd time to have BC), but it wasn't in the bone. My tumor was only 1.2 cm, but highly aggressive with Ki67-50%. ER/PR+, HER2- LVI. They removed the tumor and part of the muscle. Positive margin. Then I had 37 radiation treatments. Now I've been on Kisqali and Letrozole for over 2 years and will stay on that course so long as the meds work. I'm currently getting CT scans every 6 months. Treatment may be different for a man based on tumor specifics.

My heart goes out to your friend. Please post info about his second opinion. Thank you!

Thank you so much, @californiazebra! My friend is 63 years old. In fact, the doctor just ordered genetic testing. (We had a consultation on 5/16). We'll know the results in a week or two. I will post it when we know about the results, as well as the second opinion. It looks like he won't be able to schedule an appointment until the first week of June though.
I am so sorry that you are going through this for the second time. I hope the meds keep working for you! Thank you for responding to my post and sharing your experience too.

I am not sure if @ronaldj or @dick61 had chemotherapy or not, but I would think a male with breast cancer could certainly help add perspective. I believe they are both still active on connect.
The best piece of advice I can give is to be his advocate and make sure he is following his own path, if he isn’t comfortable with the recommendations he can ask for more options to choose from. We should all be allowed to have a vote in the decisions on our own health care.
I am going to cross all my fingers and toes that he is more comfortable with the second opinion. Especially since male breast cancer is more rare, it might be beneficial to find a cancer center that deals with it regularly.
Is there a larger cancer center or teaching hospital in your area?

Thank you so much, Chris! I completely agree with you! My friend lives in LA and has Kaiser health insurance. I think the doctors are great and will take good care of him, but I think it's a good idea for him to get the second opinion, even though it's costly to seek consultation outside of Kaiser. I've contacted both the UCLA medical center and the Beverly Hills Cancer Center for one-time consultation. I think the doctor (at Kaiser) said that chemotherapy is not an option right now due to the large size of the mass and recommended the hormone therapy. My friend has already started taking the mediation and will see the same doctor in a month. It would be good to have seen other doctors before that, so he can discuss his treatment options with the doctor, as you said. I'm hoping more people who have experience with male breast cancer can share their experiences. Thank you again!