‘Pay attention:’ Falls Church man who survived breast cancer has a message for men - WTOP

Considering how rare breast cancer is in men, Steve Cone said he feels he must be special to have gotten it twice — and it’s turned the Virginia man into an advocate.

He said men and women share similar risk factors for developing the disease, such as being overweight, excessive alcohol use or simply getting older.

About 5% to 10% of breast cancers run in families and are hereditary among people with BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations.

“The number one risk factor for breast cancer is getting older, more than anything?

So there’s risk factors for which we don’t have any control over,” Gallagher said, adding that for lack of a better way of thinking about it, it’s just bad luck.

“There’s certainly lots of study going on, looking at certain environmental risk factors during vulnerable periods of a person’s life, whether it’s as infants or children or when they go through puberty,” Gallagher said.

That puts us at risk for things,” Gallagher said.

“If you feel something, you have to go say something to somebody,” Gallagher said, with the message echoed by Cone — “Men should pay attention to themselves.