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28 T M C » P U L S E | J U N E 2 0 1 8 "I told my wife, 'You know, after the breast can- cer surgery and the hot flashes [from tamoxifen], I'm beginning to think I'm moving more toward being a woman than I am a man,'" Lauve quipped. But through it all, he didn't let his diagnosis make him feel any less of a man. "With a woman, breast cancer is really an attack and a siege upon her womanhood. That is a tremendous thing to have to deal with," Lauve said. "I was still the guy that I had always been, knowing full well I may be a different person at the outcome and later years, but it was not an attack on my manhood. I didn't view it that way at all." 1 in 1,000 One man in 1,000 will develop breast cancer, whereas 1 woman in 8 will be diagnosed with the disease. The American Cancer Society estimates approximately 2,550 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in men in 2018 and about 480 men will die from the disease this year. Currently, male breast cancer accounts for approx- imately 1 percent of all cases of breast cancer. "A lot of the [male] patients aren't even aware that they could get breast cancer, or they don't think of themselves as having breasts," said Sharon Giordano, M.D., a breast medical oncol- ogist at MD Anderson. "That often can lead to delays in diagnosis and treatment, because they're not aware that it's even a possibility." Giordano, who also serves as the chair of the department of Health Services Research in the division of Cancer Prevention and Population Sciences at MD Anderson, has been studying male breast cancer for 20 years. Currently, one- third of her patients are men. The precise cause of breast cancer is not well understood. However, researchers have identified genetics (including BRCA1 and BRCA2 muta- tions), age, family history and radiation exposure as risk factors for breast cancer in men. Higher levels of estrogen can also play a role in tumor growth. According to Giordano and mul- tiple studies, more than 90 percent of male breast cancers are estrogen receptor-positive. "Most of them have estrogen receptor- positive tumors, which, again, is surprising to a lot of [men], but men have estrogen, and most of these tumors are driven by hormones," Giordano said. HTG Molecular Diagnostics, Inc. 3430 E. Global Loop, Tucson, AZ 85706 Call 877-289-2615 For Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures. In the U.S. and other applicable jurisdictions, HTG EdgeSeq is a trademark of HTG Molecular Diagnostics, Inc Any other trademarks or trade names used herein are the intellectual property of their respective owners. Medical Center Core Labs + HTG Now you can use HTG's next-generation sequencing based technology for molecular proling. Core Labs will process your samples on-site — including sample prep, sequencing, and data analysis — for as little as $300 per sample including two-group dierential expression analysis. HTG EdgeSeq technology allows you to prole hundreds to thousands of targeted RNAs and miRNAs with no extraction — from most samples as small as: ■ 15 µl of biouid ■ One 5 µm FFPE section ■ 10 ng of extracted RNA ■ ≥3,000 cells To learn more, call Miguel Medina, Ph.D. at 832-599-0013 or email mmedina@htgmolecular.com HTG :TX Sharon Giordano, M.D., is chair of the department of Health Services Research in the division of Cancer Prevention and Population Sciences at MD Anderson. MEN ' S HEALTH