Male breast cancer: It’s time to denounce Namibia’s silent threat – News

Our society is plagued by a widespread and deeply ingrained misconception that breast cancer is a disease that primarily affects single women.

Such a tragic misunderstanding has been further hammered home by the general awareness work of cancer organizations, whose message continues to be that women should be screened regularly for breast cancer and men for breast cancer. prostate.

Here, the stereotype and the notion of gender are reinforced by the fact that women are the biological carriers of breasts and men, of testicles.

Men do have breasts and are therefore prone to breast cancer.

They have breast tissue which, although less developed than in women, can nevertheless harbor malignant cells.

The most common type of breast cancer in men is ductal carcinoma, arising from the ducts that carry milk to the nipple.

It is crucial to note that although these ducts are not functional in men, they are structurally present and can become sites for cancerous growth.

Additionally, men can also develop lobular cancer, which begins in the lobules or glands of the breast.

These structures, although vestigial and nonfunctional, highlight the biological basis for the manifestation of the disease in humans.

This realization came to me a few days ago when, during a conversation with one of our oncologists, I learned that more and more men are being diagnosed with breast cancer.

For a Namibia whose former president tragically succumbed to cancer and where many men and women continue to be pushed into the shadow of death by this insidious disease, now is the time to dispel the myths.

Men should also be screened for breast cancer.

Now is the time to arrive at the intersection of an ongoing effort to gender cancer and change the narrative by deliberately emphasizing that breast cancer screening is not exclusively a women’s health issue. women.

Men’s susceptibility to breast cancer and our failure to realize the danger this reality represents can only push us into the abyss of increasing numbers of deaths.

The reality of male breast cancer

According to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, as of April 25, 2024, approximately 2,800 men will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer in the United States alone.

The foundation goes on to warn that about 530 American men will also die from breast cancer in 2024.

As we look at these dire estimates, which of course come from another part of the global village, we must ask ourselves how many men have we lost to breast cancer so far in Namibia and how many more will die?

The sooner we can find answers, the better able we will be to extricate ourselves from being trapped in the proverbial limbo of those who are dying or about to die.

I call on the people of my country to realize that the misconception that breast cancer is an exclusively female disease leads us to delay diagnosis and treatment in men.

• Rossina Kalimba is a cancer advocate and founder of the Zuzu Holding Hands Cancer Foundation. She can be contacted at [email protected]