Bret Miller Escapes a Double Mastectomy

24 year old Bret Miller was diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer seven years after finding a lump in his chest. His doctors dismissed the lump likely being a calcium deposit.

This decision to not look at the lump more closely has led him to his present day situation. After his doctors finally realized Miller did actually have cancer in his chest, and since the cancer had gone unchecked, they gave him the one option of having a double mastectomy.

Miller was shocked to learn he would need this invasive surgery after his doctors initially dismissed his lump. Having a double mastectomy weighed heavily on Miller’s mind, not only because he had cancer, but also because how it would affect his perception of himself in his then pool manager job.

Miller had decided to postpone the second mastectomy but thankfully his doctors were more diligent in their research and decided that only the mastectomy for the infected chest was necessary, and surgery wasn’t needed for the unaffected chest.

It is a normal routine to remove both the affected and unaffected breast in women, but they felt he should not be treated exactly like female patients and his unaffected breast should be left intact.

The American Cancer Society says 231,840 women are diagnosed with invasive breast cancer every year, compared to 2,350 men. This is the reason his first doctors didn’t consider Miller’s chance of having breast cancer.

About 2,350 men are diagnosed with invasive breast cancer every year, compared to 231,840 women, according to the American Cancer Society. For men, the lifetime risk of getting breast cancer is 1 in 1,000, compared to 1 in 8 for women.

The risk of breast cancer is rising though and doctors are not sure what is the cause, which has been resulting more double mastectomies being performed on men.

You can find out more about Bret Miller and his The Bret Miller 1T Foundation at https://www.facebook.com/BretMiller1T/.