Moses Agaba grew up with a minor swelling on his breast but he never thought of going for medical checkup because it was painless. He had no idea that it would one day be the spark for the agony and heart-wrenching pain he is going through today. He later learnt that the swelling was a sign of breast cancer.

VIDEO: Male Breast Cancer: Victim's Testimony. Source: The New Times/YouTube

As time went on, Agaba’s swelling became painful, weakened him and almost cost him his sight. This prompted him to visit a doctor.

"I was very weak and suffered from a litany of illnesses including losing weight. The coughing and vomiting was terrible and I honestly didn’t know what was going on. When I went to the doctor, he told me that if I regain my weight, I would automatically regain my sight but that never happened despite putting on weight,” Agaba says.

Still worried about what exactly was happening, Agaba went for another checkup and the doctors ruled out breast cancer. But determined to get to the root of the problem, Agaba sought another opinion from Rwanda Military Hospital Kanombe and it was indeed confirmed that he had cancer.

Ever since Agaba learnt that he had cancer in May last year, he has gone through a lot of emotional and physical pain and it has been worsened by the lack of a job yet treatment is very expensive. But his relatives and friends have not abandoned him, and he is grateful to them for their support.

Hope to live

Although the cancer was diagnosed late, Agaba says he is confident that he will recover fully in the near future. He is currently receiving treatment, chemotherapy being one of them.

"I have faith that I will get cured one day. Chemotherapy weakened me so much within a short time that I thought I was going to die. Now that I survived death that time, I have no reason to worry now,” Agaba says, urging cancer patients to always remain strong because healing needs courage.

He advises men to look out for signs of be breast cancer because it is real and needs urgent attention.

"I had the swelling on my body for so many years (since 14 years of age) but never sought medical attention because it was painless. I only acted when it started itching,” Agaba says. "People should not ignore swellings on any part of their body because it could turn out to be dangerous.

Born 40 years ago, the law graduate has always been active in his life.  While still a student at university, Agaba started a number of organisations such as Girls Leaders Forum and was also the adviser and chairperson of Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) branch at the former National University of Rwanda.

What experts say about male breast cancer

Dr Joseph Kamugisha, a medical oncologist resident in Israel, says Klinefelter’s syndrome is one of the major factors for male breast cancer occurrence in life. Klinefelter’s syndrome is a genetic or chromosomal defect that occurs in baby boys. Male breast cancer occurs in this condition if a baby boy is born with much higher levels of estrogen than normal.

Another major cause is the inheritance of BRAC2 mutation in life.

He says since last September, he has treated 8 patients with male breast cancer. Of the eight, 2 of them have had metastatic disease and are receiving palliative care treatment, while the 3 that reported with advanced disease had surgery and under-went sequential chemo-radation treatment. The other 3 patients reported early disease and have been cured with surgery plus radiotherapy. The later are under routine follow-up and control.

Males should also learn self-breast examination to help in early breast cancer detection. Some tumors or breast cancer may start with swelling but no pain and this is why many people tend to neglect some small masses.

Dr Fidel Rubagumya of Butaro Cancer Centre says there is no specific age group that is more prone to the disease meaning that anyone can get it.

"We have patients aged between 28 and 56 years so I think anyone regardless of their age can get breast cancer. The safest way is to have an early medical examination,” Dr Rubagumya says, adding that they are currently treating 5 male breast cancer patients at their facility.

In her article "Be alert, male breast cancer is as dangerous as the others”, Philippa Kibugu-Decuir, the founder and director of Breast Cancer Initiative East Africa Inc. says: "Warning signs of breast cancer in men include a painless lump or thickening in the breast or chest area, change in the size or shape of the breast, dimpling, puckering or redness of the breast skin, Itchy, scaly sore or rash on the nipple, an inverted nipple and a nipple discharge which is rare.”