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A Single Centric Quantitative Assessment of Male Breast Cancer Knowledge, Perception, and Awareness: Breaking the Stigma in Indian Population

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Abstract

Most people throughout the world are still uninformed of the problem of breast cancer in men. Despite increasing awareness programs targeting women, most people are unaware that breast cancer can also affect men. Our purpose is to assess the knowledge, perception, and awareness of male breast cancer among the adult male population. A descriptive cross-sectional survey included 128 male employees who agreed to participate in our study. We distributed pre-validated questionnaires to participants and gathered data following the one-on-one interview. The mean age of the participants was 37.71 years with a standard deviation of 7.65. About 55.5% of the participants were unaware that changes in the nipple position could be a sign of breast cancer. Majority of the participants, i.e., 60.9% believe positive family history will not increase the risk of breast cancer and 93% of participants have no idea about self-breast examination to detect lumps. On the other hand, 33.6% of participants stated that diagnosis and treatment of male breast cancer is embarrassing. Majority of the participants have no idea about the screening methods, 59.4% of participants have not heard about mammography, which is considered a modality of choice for early detection of breast cancer. The male university staff were lacking in knowledge and awareness about male breast cancer. In Indian community, because of shyness, they feel very embarrassed when it comes to openly discussing breast cancer. Because of this, it needs to receive more attention and to educate the male population about male breast cancer.

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Acknowledgements

We are thankful to the Bapubhai Desaibhai Patel Institute of Paramedical Sciences, Charotar University of Science and Technology for their constant support and encouragement.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Imaging Technology, Bapubhai Desaibhai Patel Institute of Paramedical Sciences, Charotar University of Science and Technology, Off. Nadiad - Petlad Rd, Changa, Anand, Gujarat, India

    Mukti Patel, Manna Debnath, Santosh Ojha & Dolly Sharma

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  1. Mukti Patel
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  2. Manna Debnath
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  3. Santosh Ojha
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  4. Dolly Sharma
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Contributions

Conceptualization: MD, SO, and MP; data curation: MP; formal analysis: SO and DS; methodology: MP and SO; project administration: MD; supervision: MD; writing—original draft: MP, MD, and SO; writing—review and editing: DS and SO

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Manna Debnath.

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Ethical approval

The present study protocol was reviewed and approved by the institutional review board of CHARUSAT University (CHA/IEC/ADM/22/02/124.01). Inform consent was obtained from all the participants.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Patel, M., Debnath, M., Ojha, S. et al. A Single Centric Quantitative Assessment of Male Breast Cancer Knowledge, Perception, and Awareness: Breaking the Stigma in Indian Population. Indian J Surg Oncol 14, 949–955 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13193-023-01834-5

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