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Male Breast Cancer?
Here’s Glenn Crowley’s journey with the disease
When you hear of a person with breast cancer, one doesn’t typically consider it affecting males. Breast cancer occurs mainly in women, but men can get it, too. Many people do not realize that men have breast tissue and that they can develop breast cancer. Cells in nearly any part of the body can become cancer and can spread to other areas. In fact, it is very rare, but yet in 2023 approximately 2800 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed and about 530 men will die from breast cancer.
Breast cancer starts when cells in the breast begin to grow out of control. These cells usually form a tumor that can often be seen on an x-ray or felt as a lump. The tumor is malignant (cancer) if the cells can grow into (invade) surrounding tissues or spread (metastasize) to distant areas of the body.
When Glenn Crowley first noticed a lump, he along with his wife, Sheila, didn’t think much of it figuring it was a perhaps a cyst or a bruise. Unfortunately, this was not the case.
Approximately a year after first noticing the lump, Glenn went in to have it checked out. – that was the end of January 2022. Tom Bergman, PA at Murray County Medical Center, Slayton, immediately sent him for further imaging. Dr. Harms completed the initial x rays which revealed a highly suspicious firm left breast nodule concerning for malignancy. A Tru-cut biopsy was done which showed he had Invasive Ductal Carcinoma termed as stage 3.
In this type of cancer the cells begin in the ducts and then grow outside the ducts into other parts of the breast tissue. Symptoms include a lump or swelling of the breast, red-ness or flaky skin on the breast, dimpling of the skin, nipple discharge, pulling in of the nipple (inverted nipple) or pain in the area - which is what Glenn experienced. The lump was very tender to the touch.
A man’s risk is higher if a close family member has had it. In Glenn’s case, it was not only his mother, but also his sister who had been diagnosed with breast cancer.
Glenn’s ultrasound showed multiple enlarged hypoechoic masses (lymph nodes) with five being highly suggestive of malignancy. With this in mind, full body and bone scans were done which, fortunately showed it hadn’t spread anywhere else in the body.
There was discussion regarding surgery versus chemo. The Avera cancer doctors held a conference and ultimately decided chemo first was the best route to go. The hope was to reduce the tumor as well as control any micro metastatic disease. A port was placed the first part of February.
Glenn went on to receive biweekly dose dense AS for eight weeks followed by 12 weekly doses of paclitaxel. His final dose of chemo took place on Friday, July 15th.
Despite not feeling well most of the time, he powered through and was able to work through the process.
On August 15th, 2022 Glenn underwent a mastectomy. During the follow up meeting with the surgeon she explained that basically the chemo did not do its job as hoped. Glenn’s ultrasound imaging showed increased sizing of lymph nodes and new concerning lymph nodes and as a result there was significant disease burden with minimal, if any treatment effect seen on pathology reports. Eleven lymph nodes were surgically removed with six of them positive for metastatic carcinoma.
Unfortunately, the staging scans following surgery revealed two lymph nodes, concerning for malignancy remained with one close to his clavicle. There was discussion as to going back in and having these two nodes surgically removed, however, Glenn had a 25% chance of nerve damage if this was done. It was decided these two areas would receive a higher doses of radiation instead.
Glenn’s type of breast cancer is what doctors term as estrogen driven or ER+. So one way to reduce his chance of recurrence was to begin daily doses of Tamoxifen. The oncologist admitted there is a real lack of good evidence in male breast cancer patients regarding this type of treatment.
As a means of reducing the risk for re-occurance, Glenn started radiation the first part of October going five days a week and completed his 30th session on November 14th. He handled the radiation cycle quite well. The two highly suspicious remaining lymph nodes received higher doses of radiation the last two weeks in hope of eliminating them or at least reducing them.
Verzenio is a drug used to help kill cancer cells left behind after surgery. Verzenio + hormone therapy showed a 37% reduction in the risk of cancer returning compared with hormone therapy alone. Glenn started the use of this in mid November of 2022 and will remain on this drug for two years and the Tamoxifen for 10 years.
As a result of so many lymph nodes taken out, Glenn has developed lymph-edema in his left arm. This is termed as tissue swelling caused by an accumulation of protein-rich fluid that’s usually drained through the body’s lymphatic system. A Sozo test was done in July of 2022 as a bench mark for fluid. It was repeated in March of this year at which time the arm showed some swelling. Additionally there was tightness in the arm area as well as chest so exercises were prescribed along with some physical therapy. Part of his new daily ritual is a 1/2 hour of stretching exercises every morning. At night Glenn’s left arm is inserted into a sleeve which has tubes attached to a pump. The compression sleeve is segmented into chambers that pulsates up the arm moving the fluid through the lymphatic vessels, reducing swelling and discomfort. This is repeated nightly lasting for 50 minutes each session.
A PET scan was done at the end of March which revealed radiation had done its job and killed the cancer. At this time, we are happy to report he is cancer-free.
He has monthly blood work done to make sure the Verzenio isn’t doing damage and continues working to help prevent his cancer from returning.
Glenn is a branch manager for New Vision Corp at their Reading. MN site. Sheila works at the Murray County News in Slayton as editor/photographer. He, and Sheila, are parents to three children: Kristen (Joel) Hovland, Heron Lake; Aaron (Lori) Crowley, Fulda and Brianna (Ben) Bohenhagen, White Lakes, SD. They are the proud grandparents of ten grandchildren and cherish every minute with family.
