Atypical survivor

Eddie Quick had to think for a minute.

"No sir, I don't think so," he said when asked whether he owned anything pink. Then he laughed.

That he doesn't own any of the color symbolic of Breast Cancer Awareness Month doesn't make him any less of a breast cancer survivor.

Mr. Quick, 55, represents one of the rare cases of breast cancer that strikes in men. This year, an estimated 1,990 men will develop breast cancer, versus 182,460 women, according to the American Cancer Society.

While it is far less common, it is also more deadly in men because it tends to be diagnosed at later stages, according to the cancer society. There is no screening program for men as there is for women, nor would it be practical because of the rarity of the disease in men, said medical oncologist Mark Keaton, who treated Mr. Quick.

"Sometimes, men, they're not in tune to having breast problems," Dr. Keaton said.

Most discover it the way Mr. Quick did, by feeling a lump. He was watching television in March 2006 when he scratched his chest and felt a small lump in his right breast.

"The first thing that crossed my mind was cancer," he said. "I don't know why, but it was."

He called his wife in.

"She said, 'We'd better have somebody look at it,' " Mr. Quick said. "And that started it all off."

Yet even after Dr. Chris Carlson removed a lump the size of a Ping-Pong ball, Mr. Quick said he was still being told it was nothing. But that was before the lump was examined.

"He called me back in three or four days and said it is something," Mr. Quick said. "That's when I was really worried. I was scared to death because we had no idea of knowing if it had spread or anything. When you hear that C word -- you never know what it does to you until you hear it."

The surgeon did his best to try to calm his fears, Mr. Quick said.

"He said, 'Don't worry, it's not a death sentence; we're going to get rid of it,' " Mr. Quick said. "I wanted to believe him real bad."

Long recovery

Dr. Carlson removed his right breast and lymph nodes on that side, and fortunately the cancer had not spread, he said. But because Mr. Quick is a diabetic, it took a long time for his incision to heal, and it left him unable to do a lot of things.

"I was real depressed because I couldn't drive," he said. "I couldn't bathe (because of incisions). I just couldn't do anything. I couldn't dress myself. And, too, every time I walked in front of that mirror, I couldn't believe it. I said that's got to be somebody else. I know this didn't happen to me."

University Hospital was able to find another male breast cancer patient in Atlanta whom Mr. Quick could talk to.

"He told me that the depression that I was feeling was more from the shock of surgery and your body trying to get over being cut open," Mr. Quick said. "He kept telling me not to worry, that it would go away. As I got to where I could do more and more things, it would go away. And it did."

That is one of the problems male breast cancer patients can face that is not really an issue for women, Dr. Keaton said.

"There's not a lot of support out there" for men, he said. "There's a lot more support services for women with breast cancer than there are for men."

Mr. Quick, who is a truck driver for Augusta Public Services, said the support there was also a tremendous help.

"They were really good at work," he said. "They called, and they came to see me and prayed for me and everything."

"He had a lot of prayers going up from several churches," said Mr. Quick's wife, Laurie.

And there was family support -- Mr. Quick's mother had breast cancer about 15 years ago.

"Certain times I'll ask her, 'Did you do this?' And 'Did this happen to you?' " he said.

Both mother and son, for instance, started taking tamoxifen as a preventive after surgery, and both are nauseated by it, although Mr. Quick is staying on it.

In fact, there does seem to be a stronger hereditary link in male breast cancer than in female breast cancer, Dr. Keaton said. It is particularly striking when looking at the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes that mean an increased risk of breast cancer, he said.

"And actually if you look, a small percentage of female breast cancers are hereditary, but that percentage in men tends to be much higher," Dr. Keaton said. "Twenty, 25 percent of men will be positive for these BRCA genes, whereas in women it might be 5 or 10 percent."

Mr. Quick underwent genetic testing to see whether he might be carrying those genes, and he is not. Many patients get the Oncotype DX test to determine the risk of the breast cancer returning. And there Mr. Quick ran into another problem that's unlikely for female breast cancer patients.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia refused to pay the $3,460 for the test. According to the explanation of benefits, "The diagnosis or procedure submitted on this claim is inconsistent with the sex of the patient. Please resubmit your claim with the proper information."

The family was floored.

"I can't believe they would put that on there," Mrs. Quick said.

But Blue Cross spokeswoman Cheryl Monkhouse said the claim has been paid and the problem was in the way it was submitted.

"It was a physician error on the initial coding," she said.

'Do it early and often'

Whether the incidence of male breast cancer is increasing is still an open question, said William F. Anderson, a principal investigator in the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics at the National Cancer Institute.

Male breast cancer rates were considered stable from year to year until a 2004 study that found that they had increased 26 percent between 1973 and 2004. Dr. Anderson is in the midst of his own study of male breast cancer data to see whether this is in fact a real trend.

"Male breast cancer comprises less than one-half percent of all breast cancer," he said. "And so even if it doubled, much less going up 26 percent, it's still a very rare disease."

While the risk for breast cancer for men is still low, Mr. Quick said it behooves his gender to be vigilant for it.

"To check themselves and catch it as early as you possibly can," he said.

"And if you find something where it shouldn't be, go to the doctor," Mrs. Quick said.

"I can't stress it enough, to do it early and often," Mr. Quick added, "because if I had not caught mine when I did, it could have been real bad. I was so blessed to find it early. It could have been a lot worse."

Now more than two years out, Mr. Quick considers himself a breast cancer survivor, even if it is difficult for him to connect with the women who have faced the same battle.

"It's kind of hard to relate to the ladies because it is so much more traumatic for them I'm sure than it was for me," he said. "It was scary, but then they figure they're disfigured. I figure I've got a cool scar and a dent (in his chest).

"Whatever I can do to help them, I want to help them," he said. "I know what it feels like when they first say that to you."

And that's the same whether you're a man or a woman.

Reach Tom Corwin at (706) 823-3213 or tom.corwin@augustachronicle.com.