Breast cancer in men is rare, and doctors say that can mean men are diagnosed later, after the disease has already spread.
Less than 1 percent of breast cancer cases are found in men. According to PEOPLE, that can happen because men do not get routine screening like women, may not know they can get breast cancer, and doctors may be less experienced in spotting the signs in men.
That was the case for Paul Forgette, a 69-year-old landscaper from Upland, California, who found a lump in his chest in November 2024. It turned out to be stage 4 breast cancer.
His oncologist, Dr. Joanne Mortimer of City of Hope in Los Angeles, told PEOPLE, “Men who have a family history of breast cancer or who are known to have genetic predispositions for breast cancer, should be aware to examine their breasts and to make sure that their primary care physicians know that they are at increased risk.”
Mortimer also said, “In my experience, men who have breast cancer have been open to sharing their experience, like Paul. They know that one in 200 cases of breast cancer occur in men and by sharing their experience, they can educate others so that more men are diagnosed at an early stage.”
Forgette told PEOPLE he had not really been to a doctor “in maybe 20 years,” but went for a pre-op visit before surgery about two-and-a-half years ago. A blood test found his PSA was high, and he was referred to a urologist, who told him he had low-grade prostate cancer.
A few days later, he said, “I was combing my hair and I kind of bumped my chest and I felt a pretty good-sized lump.”
He contacted his new doctor and was scheduled for a mammogram. When he arrived, he told PEOPLE staff asked him, “Are you here for your wife or something?” He replied, “No, it’s me.”
After a PET scan, Forgette said he was told, “Oh yeah, you got stage four breast cancer. It’s in your lymph nodes. It’s in your bones, and you’re pretty much sunk.”
He said he was told, “You might want to collect your thoughts and start making arrangements.”
Forgette said he decided to seek another opinion. “No, I think I’m going to go out into the parking lot and call City of Hope and get a second opinion,” he recalled. “Within a week, I had my first appointment, and within nine days I was getting my first chemo infusion.”
He said a doctor at City of Hope told him he had probably had the disease for five or 10 years. “I just didn’t realize it because men aren’t really doing self-examinations,” he said.
Forgette said the diagnosis did not make him feel embarrassed. “What other cancer is so studied in clinical trials? There aren’t 10K walks for kidney cancer. This one has so much attention around it; I feel fortunate that this is what I have if I have to have cancer. And I don’t feel a stigma.”
He said some parts of treatment felt strange. When he first started going to City of Hope, he said the facility was called the Women’s Center. He told PEOPLE, “So a couple of times I went in and they said, ‘Hey pal, prostate’s down the hall.’ And I said, ‘No, I’m supposed to be here.’”
Forgette said he dealt with that by joking. “I tell my doctor, ‘I hope this is the hairiest chest you have to examine today,’ and things like that, just to make light of it.”
He also said he joined breast cancer forums online and listened even when much of the discussion did not apply to him. “They’re always talking about doing this and doing that with post-menopausal women and all that, and I go, okay, that’s not me, but I listen to everything that they have going on.”
Forgette said he still has no symptoms from the cancer itself. “They always ask me, ‘Do you have bone pain?’ No. ‘Are you sore?’ No.”
He said he feels “kind of crummy for about 11 days after the infusion every 28 days,” but added, “I actually feel better now than I have in 20 years.”
He told PEOPLE he changed his diet after reading widely online. “I boiled it down to, I only eat whole foods. So no processed foods, no processed sugar, and no bread except for some sourdough once a month.”
Forgette said that change quickly affected how he felt physically. “Interestingly enough, within like three weeks, my arthritis was gone. My knees were always killing me. Suddenly I was taking steps two at a time going up the stairs, and I haven’t done that in a long time.”
He also said City of Hope offers yoga and Qigong classes, and that he started Pilates with one instructor and weight training with another. “So four days or five days a week I’m doing physical activity,” he said.
Forgette said support from friends and family has also mattered. “Once people heard I had Stage IV cancer, they kind of treated it like I was dying. They’re bringing food over and stuff. They’re sending me notes and cards, and it’s kind of like I got to see my eulogy before I was done.”
He said his wife has been “so supportive” and added, “It’s so important to have supportive people around you.”
Forgette told PEOPLE the cancer returned once about a year ago, and doctors now monitor him closely. “They check my tumor marker every four weeks. If it goes up, then they do a PET scan. And if that doesn’t reveal anything, we just keep going. If it lights up again, they’ll change to a different procedure.”
For now, he said he is focused on treatment and staying upbeat. “So that’s where I am: Staying positive, joking about things and just looking forward to everything.”
And he has a clear goal in mind. “I’m going to be one of these people they say 10 years later, 15 years later he’s still here.”
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