… and a look at the benefits of dragon boat racing for breast cancer survivors of either sex.

By Sylvia Foley, AJN senior editor

Although breast cancer is far less common in men than in women, being a man doesn’t make one immune to the disease. Yet misconceptions about male breast cancer abound. In this month’s CE feature, Men’s Awareness and Knowledge of Male Breast Cancer, nurse researcher Eileen Thomas reports on a qualitative study of 28 men at higher risk (all had at least one maternal relative who had been diagnosed with breast cancer). The goals were twofold:  to learn more about men’s understanding and perceptions of this life-threatening illness, and to elicit information that might guide clinical practice and the development of sex-specific educational interventions.

The study findings are rather startling. Nearly 80% of the participants had no idea that men could develop breast cancer. Fully 100% of the participants reported that none of their primary care providers had discussed the disease with them. Asked how they thought male breast cancer was detected, most participants could name only one symptom  (“a lump”); one said, “They find it on the autopsy table.” And 43% reported that being diagnosed with breast cancer might cause them to question their masculinity. One participant stated, “I would feel like my manhood was taken away.” […]