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What about male breast cancer patients?
In the first place, the incidence is a problem: in women there are about 35,000 diagnoses/year and in men, who are not well registered, we are talking about between 525 and 680 patients/year. Secondly, other things are mixed, such as the pink ribbon and the historical claim of women. And between one thing and another we have been totally invisible.
Invi is the first association in Spain for male breast cancer. What is your job?
It arose because, when I was diagnosed, I found no information. I was amazed that the man could develop breast cancer. Someone told me that he was making the invisible visible, hence the name of the association. From here I tried to raise awareness that this exists, to give testimony, because the more awareness, the more early detection. The problem of man is that, by not relating it, we are in an average of 19 months from the symptom to the diagnosis. And of course, 80% of us are metastatic due to these factors, and even if the professional does not relate it or is not aware of it and sends them home because he says it is a lump of fat. We also do not go to the doctor because men do not have a culture of self-care, it is a multifactorial issue.
What needs exist in male breast cancer?
The first thing is the awareness that this exists. Secondly, the focus must be placed on the patient, from individual to group accompaniment to inform him about everything related to the male CM. The idea is that the patient is as informed as possible at all levels of the disease he is suffering from. Third, advocate for research, because until recently we were not even in clinical trials. We use women’s treatments, but XX and XY are not the same; It is now being shown that there are subtype and biological differences and that secondary effects or mortality can be conditioned and affected. Through Geicam, the first retrospective national registry is being carried out in a thousand patients so that tumor tissue and blood can be sequenced and we can answer many questions that, to this day, are not.
Much has been made of the metastatic triple negative subtype. Why is so complicated?
As far as I know, it is the subtype to date that is a challenge for Medicine because it is the most aggressive, the one with the highest mortality. In the case of men we also have and is equivalent to 1% of cases.
The incorporation of new drugs for BC to the portfolio of health services was recently announced. Now, what needs arise for patients?
The needs are clear and we are closely aligned with the Metastatic Breast Cancer Association: we advocate that in a country where we are among the first in the world in clinical trials and innovation, that this innovation does not reach the patient. And that, after the approval of the EMA, it takes approximately 500 days until the approval in the SNS. How many patients, mostly women, but also men, since the majority are metastatic, are lost along the way because they cannot access these treatments. The approval system for these drugs must be changed. We cannot have them approved and they are not arriving here, because it could be that a life depends on it.
On Cancer Day, what are the requests of patients with metastatic breast cancer?
Equity at all levels should be a priority and a matter of State. It is no longer access to treatments, but technological innovation such as liquid biopsy. You have to have access to all that now regardless of where you live, even what center you are in, and this is very serious. Then, all together, there is a lot of disparity and we have to join forces. There is talk of figures, statistics, but it is a person with cancer, a life.
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