Male breast cancer is rare, but deadly

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Mark Larsen’s voice might sound familiar to you.

He spent decades on the radio in Tampa, hosting his own talk show before he said things got heavily political on the airwaves.

“In the '90s, it was general talk. Everybody was invited to the table,” Larsen said.

Retired life has been great for Larsen until July, when a day after playing golf, he felt what he thought was a pulled chest muscle.

“I took some ibuprofen for a couple of days, and when that subsided, it consolidated right here, and I felt a lump. And it was about the size of a ping pong ball,” Larsen said.

Larsen went to the internet for answers and thought maybe he just had a cyst. But it didn’t go away.

He also has a family history of cancer, so Larsen went to his doctor.

“She booked me for a mammogram, and that’s all she wrote. I had a breast tumor. Stage 2," he said.

Dr. John Kiluk specializes in breast cancer at Tampa’s Moffitt Cancer Center. He said only 1% of breast cancer cases are men.

“I think most people don’t think that’s a possibility because guys don’t have breasts," Kiluk said. "But actually, there is breast tissue there, and that can develop breast cancer."

The BRACA gene mutation known to cause breast cancer runs in Larsen's family. He and his brother both have it.

“We never gave it a second thought because we are guys," he said. "When you are pulling up all these testimonials online, the guys are saying, 'Yeah, I thought I might have it, but I’m a guy I’m not going to get it.'"