PROVO — As Breast Cancer Awareness Month, October is always a time of year that calls attention to risks to women’s health.
A Utah County man is living proof that it can happen to men, too.
Jon Hadley’s story began two summers ago with a different type of cancer.
“I noticed a little black dot in my left ear,” Hadley said during an interview Thursday with KSL. “By the end of the summer it had really grown, just inside my ear, so I went to the doctor, had it checked out and the test came back positive for melanoma.”
Hadley said the doctor recommended he get a positron emission tomography (PET) scan to check for other cancers in his body, and he was stunned by the results.
“A hot spot appeared on my left breast,” Hadley said. “(I) went for a mammogram, and it came back positive for breast cancer.”
Hadley had always been aware, to some extent, that the sun’s rays could put him at risk for skin cancer, but he never thought he was at risk for breast cancer, which he believed was unrelated to melanoma.
At Timpanogos Regional Hospital in Orem, doctors said they often witness the survival stories of women diagnosed with breast cancer, but the same cannot be said for men.
“Breast cancer in men is much rarer: about 1 in 1,000 men get breast cancer, compared to 1 in 8 women,” said Dr. Lisa Anderson, a breast surgical oncologist at the hospital. “It’s a typically female condition, and men don’t look at or are unaware of some of the changes that can occur.”
Anderson said that while breast cancer screening is not recommended for men, it is important to be aware of any changes in breast health in both women and men.
“(It) most often presents as a palpable mass behind the nipple,” Anderson said. “It can also manifest as an inverted nipple, bloody discharge from the nipple – these are the most common things I’ve seen in the men I’ve treated.”
Looking back, Hadley had one of those warning signs, but didn’t realize what it was.
“On my nipple, sometimes you leak things or rub against your nipples,” Hadley explained. “I was leaking after I came back from a run, but I was often leaking pus, which is pretty gross, and then around my nipple it was kind of hard – I had a hard surface there. I just thought the leak was because I was running all the time, and so sometimes that happens, but it’s a sign of breast cancer.”
Hadley said his breast cancer was detected at stage 2. He successfully completed chemotherapy and radiation therapy and underwent a mastectomy to eradicate the breast cancer.
He hopes sharing his story will help other men be more aware of the risk.
“It really makes you think about how fleeting life can be, you know?” Hadley said. “Catching it early… it saved my life.”
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Gn Health
