Peter Thorne, from Hampshire, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2011

Waiting for his routine check-up, Peter Thorne simply smiled when a nurse asked whether he was sure he was at the right clinic.

Over the previous year, the retired managing director of a woodwork company had become used to the discreet stares from the other patients waiting to be seen.

He was, after all, the only man there.

This is because the clinic Peter attends is for people with breast cancer.

Many men do not realise that they can develop breast cancer, and before his diagnosis in 2011 Peter, now 70, was similarly unaware.

So when he came across a pea-shaped lump on the right-hand side of his chest, just next to his nipple, he put it down to a pulled muscle.

‘I’d been helping my son hang some oak doors a few days before, so I wondered if I had strained something,’ says Peter, who lives in Ringwood, Hants, with wife Helen, a former nurse.

He saw no urgency in getting it checked out, but mentioned it when he went to get some eczema cream from his GP a few days later.

‘As an aside I said: “And what about this lump here — have I pulled a muscle?”’

‘The doctor said it was probably nothing, but that he would refer me on.’

Two weeks later, Peter, was surprised to find himself in a hospital waiting room where the only other patients were three women.

‘When I asked the registrar what it could be, he said it might be breast cancer,’ he says. ‘That was the first I’d heard of it — I had no idea men could get it.’

Mr Thorne was sent immediately for a mammogram, ultrasound and a needle biopsy.

‘The mammogram was really painful — they pushed what breast tissue I had between two plates and took an image. It was like being put into a vice,’ he says.

When he went back for the results a week later, he was horrified when it confirmed the diagnosis.

‘My wife said I turned green at the words,’ he says. ‘I really did not see it coming and, yes, part of me felt embarrassed.’

Mr Thorne was lucky that he didn’t wait before getting the lump checked. His tumour was a grade 3 aggressive cancer — meaning it was growing quickly and was likely to spread.

Around 350 men are diagnosed with breast cancer in the UK each year, compared with 55,000 women.

Male patients tend to have less chance of making a full recovery.

One study published in the Japanese Journal of Clinical Oncology in 2013 found that after five years, men have a 72 per cent survival rate, compared with 83 per cent in women.

‘My wife said I turned green at the words breast cancer. I really did not see it coming and, yes, part of me felt embarrassed.’

It’s not that men develop a more aggressive form of the disease, but it’s almost always because men don’t act as promptly when they develop symptoms.

‘Typically, men with breast cancer tend to come along when the cancer is at a later stage — that’s to do with awareness,’ says Dr Andrew Wardley, a consultant oncologist and honorary senior lecturer at the Christie NHS Foundation Trust.

‘They just don’t know they can get breast cancer, and are not offered screening as women are.

‘But they can get it — although it is obviously less common in men. This is because the main driver of breast cancer in men and women is the hormone oestrogen, and men have less of this hormone and less breast tissue in the first place.’ Whereas women produce oestrogen in their ovaries, men produce it from their adrenal glands — and also from fat tissue.

For men it’s primarily needed to help with the formation of healthy bones and plays a role in fertility.

The symptoms in both sexes are virtually identical. They include a painless lump in the chest area, discharge from the nipple or puckering of the skin around it.

Despite huge focus on equality, men are 67 per cent more likely to die from every unisex form of cancer

Peter was lucky that he didn’t wait before getting the lump checked. His tumour was a grade 3 aggressive cancer — meaning it was growing quickly and was likely to spread

Picking up what is and is not a cancer can be tricky if men have gynaecomastia — colloquially known as ‘man boobs’ or ‘moobs’ — which affects as many as six in ten men. This is often associated with obesity which can encourage the overproduction of oestrogen that encourages the ‘moobs’ to grow.

But why do some men develop breast cancer?

‘Some men may have a genetic abnormality, and those who carry the faulty BRAC2 gene seem to be especially prone,’ adds Dr Wardley.

These genes can be passed down from either parent’s side of the family. Warning signs include having one side of the family with an unusually high number of relatives with breast, ovarian or prostate cancer, especially if these cancers occurred at a younger age than normal (under 50 for breast cancer), or any incidence of male breast cancer.

‘Weight is also an issue, as with all cancer. And the more overweight you are, the more it increases the risk,’ adds Dr Wardley.

This is because obesity increases the amount of oestrogen that men produce.

Yet for some men, breast cancer is just bad luck. Most support and services for breast cancer are designed for women, too.

‘It’s very difficult for a man diagnosed with breast cancer,’ says Jean Slocombe, Cancer Research UK’s senior health information nurse. ‘There are no facilities set up just for them and it can be an isolating situation as there are far fewer people in their position.

‘Some men also find having this disease very embarrassing. They go along for appointments to find themselves in a pink waiting room, often the only man there.’

One study published in the Japanese Journal of Clinical Oncology in 2013 found that after five years, men have a 72 per cent survival rate, compared with 83 per cent in women

Men with breast cancer have similar treatments to women.

Like them, men tend to have a mastectomy then radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy and a hormone treatment such as tamoxifen, which blocks the impact of oestrogen on cells and so helps prevent a re-growth of the cancer. Men may experience similar side-effects to women, including hot flushes and hair loss, which can further add to their discomfort at having a ‘woman’s disease’.

They may also experience loss of libido and erectile dysfunction.

‘I felt uncomfortable at first — after all, I was a man in a women’s club — but not any more.

The only major difference in their treatment is that men are less likely to have reconstruction after their mastectomy.

Men are also more likely to have radiotherapy treatment after surgery because their breast tissue is closer to the chest wall, so radiotherapy is given to prevent the chance of it spreading there.

Dr Wardley believes it could help to have services specifically targeted to men, and that the psychological support men receive could be improved upon.

‘It may be that we need a different sort of provision for men entirely,’ he says.

‘Perhaps rather than clumping it together as breast cancer, we should treat breast cancer in men as a rare cancer, so that it is treated in a different clinical setting from women with breast cancer.’

Mr Thorne’s experience highlights the additional difficulties for men who suffer from this kind of cancer.

After his diagnosis at the age of 66, Peter admits he struggled psychologically, finding it ‘a slightly isolating experience’.

When he told friends, some were taken aback that men could even get breast cancer.

‘One friend initially thought I was joking — he said: “You are taking the mickey, aren’t you?” ’

WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS OF BREAST CANCER IN MEN? The most common symptom for men with breast cancer is a lump in the breast area. This is nearly always painless. - Other symptoms can include: - Oozing from the nipple (a discharge) that may be blood stained - Swelling of the breast - A sore (ulcer) in the skin of the breast - A nipple that is pulled into the breast (called nipple retraction) - Lumps under the arm If you have any of these symptoms it is important to go to your GP straight away. Finding a cancer early gives the best chance of successful treatment. Source: Cancer Research UK Advertisement

And, shockingly, when he came round after having his surgery in May 2011, he was urged to leave the hospital the same day because they didn’t know where to put a man recovering from breast cancer surgery, and initially had to move him into an empty ward.

‘As my wife wheeled me out of the car park a few hours later, I vomited, but there was no way I wanted to stay,’ he says.

His surgery was followed by chemotherapy.

‘All the hair on my body fell out within days of starting the treatment, which was almost the worst bit for me,’ adds Mr Thorne.

‘Up until that point, no one knew to look at me that there was anything wrong, but suddenly that changed.’

Happily, his hair has regrown and he goes for six-month checks and an annual mammogram.

As well as the check-ups, he takes the drug tamoxifen daily, although he has suffered only weight gain — not hot flushes.

And he has joined a breast cancer survivors’ dragon race boat team — where he is, not surprisingly, the only man among 19 women.

‘I felt uncomfortable at first — after all, I was a man in a women’s club — but not any more.

‘We are out every Saturday, 19 women and me, and we chat about things. It’s great fun and helps to rebuild our chest muscles.

‘Now I feel I am just as much a part of this club as they are.’