‘X-Men’ star Tyler Mane’s openness about his breast cancer could reduce stigma, doctors say

“X-Men” actor and former wrestler Tyler Mane’s announcement that he has breast cancer may prompt men to increase their vigilance about a disease closely associated with women, doctors say.

Mane revealed his diagnosis to fans in an Instagram post Monday, saying he wanted to spread awareness about breast cancer cases among men, for whom “it’s rarely talked about, it’s usually found at later stages and has worse outcomes.”

“This is a valuable reminder that men can get breast cancer and that the treatments are very similar to those for women who have breast cancer,” said Dr. Harold Burstein, director of breast cancer education the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. “And as with many women who have breast cancer, the prognosis can be very good with successful treatment.”

For many men, he added, “it’s just not widely known that it’s a possibility.”

About 2,670 men are expected to be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer this year, according to the American Cancer Society, with an estimated 530 deaths associated with the disease.

In women, by contrast, about 321,910 new cases of breast cancer are projected to be diagnosed, and 42,140 women are expected to die of the disease.

For women, the five-year breast cancer survival rate can be as high as 99% if it is diagnosed when still localized, according to the American Cancer Society. The primary danger comes when the cancer has spread to distant organs of the body, which can lower the rate to 33%.

“Tyler Mane has acknowledged that it’s a very treatable condition, which is true,” Burstein said. “But most people really hadn’t heard of male breast cancer and some people even thought it might be embarrassing to be a man who had breast cancer. So I think there is real value to having these kinds of dialogs.”

Dr. Ben Park, director of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville, Tennessee, said that often, talk of breast cancer is “shrouded in pink.”

Susan G. Komen, perhaps the country’s best known breast cancer organization, has pink all over its website. Major League Baseball breaks out pink bats every Mother’s Day for breast cancer awareness.

Because of those associations, Park said, in some cases it’s “a perceived stigma for men who get breast cancer because they aren’t really men or aren’t as masculine as they should or could be.”

Dr. Arif Kamal, chief patient officer for the American Cancer Society, said Mane is correct that breast cancer diagnoses for men traditionally come later than for women.

“That is absolutely the problem. Men will say, ‘I felt this lump for three months, I thought men don’t get [breast] cancer’ and now it’s metastatic or advanced,” he said. “Women, no way are they going to feel a lump and do nothing about it for three months.”

Indeed, signs of breast cancer, for men or women, include a lump in breast tissue, abnormality in the shape of a breast, discharge from the nipple and crusting — all of which should spark the same level of urgency regardless of gender, doctors said.

“It’s still not the first thing people think about when a man finds a lump in the breast,” Park said.

Kamal said he hopes that the spotlight Mane is shining on the issue creates “a moment in time when all men, even if it’s not just breast cancer, can have a conversation about family history, for one, and second have body awareness.”

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