Could my husband have breast cancer?

[Suzie D.]

Hi,

in May my husband (26) was working out in order to lose some overweight. Much to our surprise he discovered two flat disk-like lumps in both of his breasts. He told me he never noticed these before, we were quite puzzled as to what it might be, but after a week of wondering we just went on with our lives (back then neither of us had ever heard of male BC). Then in July he got this rash on his chest that wouldn't get away (in between his breasts) and the thought that something might be wrong started to surface. So he started to look on the internet to find out what it might be and we found out that BC also happens in men, needless to say we both were horrified with the thought of him possibly having BC.

Now in late August the rash finally went away for a few weeks, but only to re-appear on both of his fore-arms. Also, the thing inside his left breast seemed to be getting larger. He was planning to go see our doctor about this, but due to family issues he had to postpone that a few weeks. Now in September the rash on his arms was fading away but he noticed some small bumps in his right fore-arm and a somewhat large one in his left elbow (on the inside). Possibly even worse is there were small lumps on his left and right lower rib section.

Right now the rash is gone, but he says the lumps in his breasts have grown a little. The lump inside his left elbow definitely has gotten larger (I felt it), and the lumps on his right fore-arm seem to have increased in number. The lumps are also no longer smooth, they're a lot more bumpy.

[CCF-RN,MSN-JS]

Dear Suzie, Male breast cancer is rare, but one out of every 150 cases of breast cancer involves a man, usually in men over 60 years old.  Although a painless breast lump is the most common sign, most breast lumps in men are benign (non-cancerous) and are related to some other cause.  The first step in determining what the cause of these lumps might be would be to have your husband be checked by a physician.

[Suzie D.]

I can actually feel "bubbles" around the lump inside his left breast, though I have to mention these (including the large ones in the center of both of his breasts and on his ribs) are highly moveable, they don’t seem to be attached to either his bones or skin. The large one inside his left breast is about 5cm in diameter, the right one seems slightly smaller. The right one definitely isn’t as high as the left one though. I guess I should also mention that there aren’t as much small lumps on his right ribs as opposed to the left side.

My husband still has a weight problem (he’s about 222 pounds), could these lumps in his arms and on his ribs be related to a fat problem? We noticed that in places where he has “loose” skin (skin near his armpits and skin at the top of his legs) the underlying fat is rather bumpy. He also had stretchmarks on those areas a couples of years ago. Though now that I think about it, he never had that loose skin nor stretchmarks on his fore-arms or ribs...

Anyway, my husband is now so terrified he has male BC he doesn’t want to go see our doctor anymore. He and I both realize very much that if it is BC he has no time to waste with seeing somebody about it, but he’s just too scared right now. Could what I just described indicate male BC? Please be a little in-depth (especially if it might not be male BC) so when I show him your reply he might feel good enough to finally have a professional check him out.

Also, my apologies for cheating with the amount of text, but there was no way I could have mentioned all this within the text size limit.