“Can Men Get Ovarian Cancer?”

Looking at that question, I bet your a little perplexed! The first thought when I have ask people is: Men don’t have ovaries so how could they get Ovarian Cancer? I have asked everyone from average people, nurses, general practice doctors and I always get the same response: There is no link between Ovarian Cancer and men. Today, I am here to educate the public on the link between Ovarian Cancer and men.

I would like to start by telling you the journey of my late Mom, Karen, who had Ovarian Cancer. My Mom was diagnosed with stage 4 Ovarian Cancer in April, 2016. My Mom would go through 4–5 different series of chemo treatments, blood transfusions, ect. My Mom would live the next 10 months fighting every day for her life. She never gave up on life … Life gave up on her!

My mom, Karen Ann Kohlmeyer Boehrns, would succumb to Ovarian Cancer at the age of 63 years old on February 20, 2017.

During the time, my Mom was sick, she sought out a genetic counselor because she had a sister and 2 daughters (including myself) that she wanted to make sure that neither her BRCA 1 or BRCA 2 genes had a flaw or mutation in them as this is a possible cause of Ovarian Cancer.

The counselor explained to us you receive a copy of your BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 genes from both your Mom and your Dad. This was mind-blowing to me. I immediately asked her, if women can get Breast and Ovarian Cancer from these genes, what do men get? She went on to explain to me, rarely, men can get Breast Cancer but then she talked about how men can also get Bladder Cancer, Pancreatic Cancer, Prostate Cancer and Melanoma and other types of skin cancers. This shocked me because other than the skin cancer, all of these cancers were right around where a women’s ovaries and uterus are in their bodies and it made complete sense.

I started to do some research and found a US National Library of Medicare National Institute of Health study, which, confirmed the genetics counselors statement. This institute did a research from 2004–2014 of 102 men with mutations (flaws) with their BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 genes. They tested men between the ages of 35 to 75 years of age. Out of the 102 men tested 32% developed some sort of cancer.

Facts and Findings:

• 33 patients were diagnosed with some form of cancer
• 8 of these patients had at least 2 or more forms of cancer
• 1 patient had 4 different cancers
• The highest form of cancer was prostate cancer, which 11 patients had.
• The second highest cancer was breast cancer, which, involved 9 patients.
• The average rate of these cancers going into remission was 7.4 years.

This was a very fascinating study and I as the first.

This study came from the American Urological Association who did a study of 207 men between 2014–2016 with mutations of the BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 genes.

Their screening was a little different than the previous study. All of these men in this study had a history of cancer in their family. They knew out of 207 men that 146 were BRCA mutation carriers. Some 61 men had already been to genetic counselors and only 8 of those men were found to be carriers. Patients who were under 40 years old were screened for a variety of different cancer tests as a standard protocol but were not given genetic testing. (The median age enrolled for this study was 50 years of age.)

Facts and Finding:

• Out of the 207 men in this study, 154 were BRCA carriers. The men classified as having BRCA 1 mutations were 92 (60%). The men who carried the BRCA 2 mutation was 61 (40%). While only 1 man carried both a BRCA 1 and a BRCA 2 mutation.
• This study was very different than the one above as the men tested a wider range of reported cancers.
• If you include both the BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 genes, their cancers ranged from 13% having prostate cancer, 9% melanoma or skin cancer, 4% SCC, 2% kidney cancer, 2.5% breast cancer, 2.5% colon cancer, 2.5% thyroid cancer, 2.5% pancreatic cancer, 1.5% hodgkin’s disease, 1% liver disease and 1% bladder disease.

Truthfully, I cannot stress enough the importance for people with a family history of any of these cancers to get genetic testing. There are excellent kits such as color.com who will do a complete history of all your mutations on your cancer genes. They will even send the results to your doctor to put in your permanent file for your future generations to be aware of what you had cancerous mutations of or did not. Please do your research when finding a company over the internet as some of them are better than others and you want to make sure you get quality requests. Also, some insurance companies will pay for genetic testing if you have a significant amount of cancer in your family because it’s cheaper to pay for the genetic testing than it is for the cancer. Breast Cancer and Ovarian Cancer, as you can see are no longer just isolated to women! Men have several other cancers that they get that if they have a BRCA 1 or 2 mutation. If you can catch the cancer early enough, you might just be able to save a life!

Please Inbox for sources.