Breast Cancer in men
Chemotherapy for breast cancer in men
Chemotherapy is the use of anti-cancer (cytotoxic) drugs to destroy cancer cells. The aim of chemotherapy is to do the maximum damage to cancer cells while causing the minimum damage to healthy tissue. Men with breast cancer may have chemotherapy:
- before surgery to shrink the cancer. This is known as neo-adjuvant chemotherapy
- after surgery if doctors think there is a risk of the cancer coming back. This is known as adjuvant chemotherapy.
Chemotherapy drugs are usually given as an outpatient, either by injection into a vein (intravenously) or as tablets. A course of chemotherapy is likely to take 4–6 months. Here men talk about their experiences of chemotherapy and its side effects. A number of men said they felt very nervous before their first session of chemotherapy because they did not know how they would react to it. Some men remember being warned by hospital staff about possible side effects and how best to prepare for them. Bill, for example, was warned that he might lose his hair, he might have a sore mouth and eyes, and he would find it tiring. He experienced most of these symptoms. Many men were apprehensive before they started their chemotherapy.
Stuart was nervous before his first chemo. Looking back, overall it wasn't as bad as he had been...
Stuart was nervous before his first chemo. Looking back, overall it wasn't as bad as he had been...
When people say “chemotherapy” it’s one of these things that you automatically think “oh God, you know, if you’ve got to have that, you’re on your way out” sort of thing, you know? But the advances in drugs these days are so great that, you know, they’ve come on so much that I think it’s… people’s perceptions of it are so different, before and then after they’ve had it. And, I can remember having, being really, really nervous before I had the first one, and thinking I'm going to be thowing up, I'm going to be, you know, so ill and this, that and the other, and…I can remember sitting here in the same chair, having the chemotherapy treatment, and I decided that I’d have cold caps. And they gave me a couple to stick in the freezer and I thought well, didn’t bother me whether I lost my hair or not, but if it’s there to try, then why not try it? So, been putting these freezing cold ice caps on, which were not very nice, and… and managed to bear it, though, so that was alright, and started having the chemotherapy, the first treatment, and it was a very strange thing, especially the one they give you and it… if they put it in too quickly it feels like you’ve got a prickly… sitting on something prickly, if you know what I mean? Think it was epirubicin… the red one but yeah, I mean, I remember seeing all the different tubes of drugs that had to be put into me and you think “God, that’s a lot, there are so many tubes, great big ones and small ones.” And I remember [my wife] saying to me afterwards, I went grey [laughs] during the chemotherapy, which was strange, but once I got the first one out the way and I knew what it was like, and how long it would take and that sort of thing, then I knew, I thought well, fine, that’s the first one out the way, only five more to go. It wasn’t too bad, and now we’ve just got to wait and see what happens, you know, whether I feel sick or this sort of thing …
Roy really didn't want chemotherapy. The doctor supported his choice when he calculated that, for...
Roy really didn't want chemotherapy. The doctor supported his choice when he calculated that, for...
So I obviously had the operation, and then I had to go back and see the oncologist, and I refused chemotherapy.
Eric found it tiring to travel to the hospital and to wait whilst they ran tests and prepared the...
Eric found it tiring to travel to the hospital and to wait whilst they ran tests and prepared the...
That must have been very tiring, going backwards and forwards.
Dan describes his side effects, which included tiredness, loss of taste, leg pain, loss of...
Dan describes his side effects, which included tiredness, loss of taste, leg pain, loss of...
What was the experience of having chemotherapy like?
Robert had blistering in the mouth after each treatment. His nails thickened and dropped off and...
Robert had blistering in the mouth after each treatment. His nails thickened and dropped off and...
I started chemotherapy on June 8th 2006, four doses of chemotherapy, to try and reduce the size of the tumour. That particular chemotherapy did not affect me in any shape or form. I could carry it on, and I was fine. I had my operation in September of 2006, and then I think it would be probably be October I started with the second round of chemotherapy. Now that chemotherapy was a much stronger dosage, different to the first lot and that caused blistering at the mouth and in the end all you could, all I wanted to eat was something that was very sweet because the taste buds went completely you couldn’t, everything tasted funny, odd, and not very nice really. Radiotherapy started in the, towards the end of November as well as at the same time as I was having chemotherapy and I had my last chemotherapy on December the 28th.
And did you have other side effects from the, from the chemotherapy at the time?
Yes. The nails go funny, finger nails.
When you say they go funny?
Yeah, they just go a bad colour. Thicken up… drop off – still a little bit of tingling in my finger ends, but the worst one is my right toes – they can, well they’re partially numb. And those toe nails are em, gross really.
Ben's veins became like 'plastic straws' and he had disconcerting pains in his arms. He lost all...
Ben's veins became like 'plastic straws' and he had disconcerting pains in his arms. He lost all...
Often, men experienced worse symptoms as their treatment progressed but they also tended to follow a pattern so men were able to expect the side effects and try to manage them.
Interview 32 became very tired and down as his chemotherapy progressed. They adjusted his dose...
Interview 32 became very tired and down as his chemotherapy progressed. They adjusted his dose...
The first, as I said the first chemo I was on, it wasn’t as strong as the… the first one I was on, if I got a bit tired I’d go to bed and have a bit, go to bed, you know, I might get up at seven and go to bed at ten and have two or three hours rest, get up I could do the garden, but the other ones, no, I was always tired. I couldn’t, I could start but I’d have to leave everything there and then for the day and so... And of course the next one again was stronger again, this last one, I feel a lot tireder now. I’m alright now I’ve had a, came in, had a bit of a lie down, sort of thing, so I’m alright now. When I - I’m alright when I’m sitting’ down or that.
RG found chemotherapy hard. He was surprised he was bothered when he lost his 'good head of hair'...
RG found chemotherapy hard. He was surprised he was bothered when he lost his 'good head of hair'...
I found the, chemotherapy very hard, I must admit. It was in a communal room, I’d have preferred it to have been in a separate cubicle. And, I- just found it very hard. Very claustrophobic really, you get these things shoved into you, and yeah and- I was okay to start with, I think I was okay on the first one, I didn’t really have, from, from my memory I didn’t really have very many after-effects, of that one. And possibly not much from the second one but it builds up, the effect builds up doesn’t it? And, then the later ones, for a week afterwards, I was you know, out of it, really, not very well and…certainly later on, in fact I was sick during the actual procedure, a couple of times. Yeah, whether it was just a mixture of anxiety and claustrophobia and the heat and all the rest of it, and the process you know. So, you know as I say, and I lost my hair as well of course. Which- I didn’t think that would bother me but it did. Cause I’ve always had a- you know, I’ve always had a good head of hair really. And I thought it would- well I coped with it but, I didn’t really like to go around too much you know. Felt a bit sort of, self-conscious, you know. I must admit I was heartily relieved when the chemotherapy was completed. And it took me, well I think it took me several months, gradually, to build up until- you know to feel more like my old self, you know. My hair gradually came back.
Mike experienced side effects like nausea and a metallic taste after his first four sessions but...
Mike experienced side effects like nausea and a metallic taste after his first four sessions but...
I was very, very nervous for the first course of chemotherapy cos I really didn’t know what to expect. It was… most sessions were two hours in time length. They injected the… the drug and all the other drugs that go with it to combat nausea and so on and so forth, and… I think the worst thing was that they didn’t warn me, when I talked about constipation, I know it’s not a subject that one wants to talk about, but had they warned me prior to… well, he actually gave me senna tablets. He said, “Well, take them if you need them” but… on the first time round it was just… I can’t believe it. It was just unbelievable. I mean, I thought the whole world, I thought that was worse than having chemotherapy, but I learnt after that, you learn and you pick up certain things that when they give you the anti-nausea tablets, which are very strong, and the combination of the chemotherapy does tend to bind up your works, and I found that prior to having the next chemotherapy that if I were to take the senna in the morning, in the evening, and then the following day morning and evening and carried on that I wouldn’t have… and after that episode, fortunately enough, I had no problems right the way through to the end, but the first lot of chemotherapy was to me was a dawdle. I was on taxotere for the first four, which I tolerated it quite well. I had a little bit of side effects, a little bit of a nausea and a little bit of sort of gastric reflux and, you know, the taste of the metallic… but when it came to the next four, which was the docetaxol, that was, that I found very, very hard, because… it would kick in five days or six days after the chemotherapy. It made me extremely lethargic, tired, loss of appetite, just wanted to sleep. Your mouth becomes, you know, with sores… and then afterwards your eyes start to stream and your nose starts to stream and that carries on, but then I was getting these… pains in the knees, in the knee joints… and I’ve forgotten what it was called. I don’t know, it was nephritis, I’m not sure if I’ve got the right expression for it, but it attacked my toes, the pain actually attacked both, as soon as it hit this foot, it would hit my left foot and then the pain would be excruciating. I mean… I just, it would just come on [clicks fingers] just like that and I, I just didn’t know where to put myself and the only thing that actually worked was paracetamol. Nothing else would touch it. Volterol wouldn’t touch it. I…
After one of his sessions of chemotherapy Alan noticed he had a high temperature and was...
After one of his sessions of chemotherapy Alan noticed he had a high temperature and was...
Tom wore a cold cap during chemotherapy to try to prevent hair loss. This enabled him to keep...
Tom wore a cold cap during chemotherapy to try to prevent hair loss. This enabled him to keep...
I had FEC which is a combination of drugs, and then taxotere. And they felt confident that this would take my hair off. So, I just, for whatever reason, I thought I would be dispirited to lose my hair. So I thought I'd put up with having the cold cap. I expected it to be pretty uncomfortable, in fact it was terribly uncomfortable. But I did persevere.
Mike describes how he still has some ongoing symptoms a few months after finishing chemotherapy....
Mike describes how he still has some ongoing symptoms a few months after finishing chemotherapy....
I still have the problems now but not so bad cos they seem to be gently beginning to ease off, slowly, so my left foot is beginning to come to with my right foot is still… my toes, underneath my toes are very, very numb still and my toenails have gone discoloured, my nails are all fallen off partly, I bang them, a bit falls off here and a bit falls off there, but I’m not particularly bothered about that, and the same with my feet… but I suppose on the whole… a lot of people have said to me, “You know, you’ve combated it, you know, pretty well.” I’ve avoided, yes… I’ve had depressed days but I look at it this way is – thank God I don’t feel ill. I might have lost weight but I don’t feel ill cos I can now walk properly whereas at the beginning of December I couldn’t walk up the stairs. I just couldn’t walk up the stairs. My muscles still hurt. It does affect the backs of your muscles and the tops of your muscles on both legs, and if I do sit down for long periods of time I can’t get up until, until I actually start to flex my leg muscles.
Bill found chemotherapy horrible but felt a sense of abandonment once it was over, although he...
Bill found chemotherapy horrible but felt a sense of abandonment once it was over, although he...
So did you make the full six courses then?
There are several of the other cancer sections on this website, including the site on ‘Breast Cancer in women’, also describe people’s experiences of having chemotherapy.
Last reviewed June 2017.
Last updated October 2013.
Copyright © 2024 University of Oxford. All rights reserved.