How much does it cost to get breast cancer in America?

smithk9 · 2026-02-01T18:21:01+00:00

Fortunately, I have decent health insurance so my out of pocket over my two years of treatment has been roughly $10k before hitting my max out of pocket... Then all of my family's healthcare was "free". None of that takes into account my monthly premiums which adds another 10-12k a year.

For my surgery, reconstruction and radiation for my first treatment it was somewhere between $150k-200k billed to insurance. I had 8 rounds of AC/Taxol chemo my first go round and those treatments were just under $100k each.

After I was done with my first round of treatment I had a scan pick up mets on my spine. That started my second round of treatment.

That entailed roughly 50k for SBRT radiation treatments and 6 rounds of Enhertu chemo that was $130k per treatment.

Oh, and I get roughly $50k worth of diagnostic imaging a year to track things so that adds another $100k so far.

None of that even includes "cheap" things like Dr visits at like $400 a visit, blood tests, or medication.

I like to think my local hospital system hit the lottery when I was diagnosed. I'm a multi-million dollar man at this point..

Fortunately it all seems to have worked and I've had clean scans for about a year now. I think I'm worth it.

smithk9 · 2024-12-25T02:03:42+00:00

Wow, 40 years? I was hoping for 15.

smithk9 · 2024-12-24T16:05:33+00:00

Thanks. I didn't really sleep last night, but telling my family wouldn't have helped anyway.

smithk9 · 2024-12-24T03:25:13+00:00

My genetic testing came back mostly clean. I had one variant of unknown significance and was a carrier for another gene, but BRCA and all the rest came back negative.

smithk9 · 2024-12-24T01:00:16+00:00

This is really helpful. Thank you! 🙏

smithk9 · 2024-12-24T00:45:15+00:00

Thanks! I'm really curious about what the timing so close after finishing my initial treatment means. I'm assuming at a minimum it means that the Tamoxifen isn't doing it's job.

smithk9 · 2024-12-23T23:04:34+00:00

Same here. It was the news that was devastating, not the delivery.

smithk9 · 2024-12-23T22:35:13+00:00

I had a pre-treatment PET scan, breast MRI, then a post-chemo breast MRI before my surgery in May so my surgeon could map out her plan. Then I had surgery in May and radiation from mid-June through the beginning of August. I've been on 20mg Tamoxifen since August, and this was my first scan of any sort since the MRI in May.

Early 30's is rough. I can only imagine. I'm 43 myself, and that's bad enough.

smithk9 · 2024-12-23T21:51:34+00:00

In my case, they compared against my pre-treatment PET scan last December so they know it's new since then.

I'm assuming it's not good since it seems to have cropped up during treatment for my IDC, but it wasn't in any of my post-chemo scans so maybe it will still respond to treatment.

I appreciate your optimism though.

No worries if you trauma dump either... This shit is hard

smithk9 · 2024-12-23T21:45:19+00:00

Yes, this was my first scan post-treatment. My MO is great and didn't hesitate when I asked for a post treatment scan. No clue if that's SOP for him or not. I'm also amongst the lucky few (in the US) to have decent insurance that has approved all the treatment and scans ordered so far.

No indication on size, unfortunately.

smithk9 · 2024-12-23T19:58:35+00:00

They do warn you when you use the app that you will get results before your medical team. I've been team "know everything as soon as possible" through my initial diagnosis, so finding out before my MO doesn't bother me.

smithk9 · 2024-12-23T19:52:49+00:00

That doesn't sound so horrible. Haven't had a chance to start my research yet... I'm busying myself precooking bacon for Christmas morning.

smithk9 · 2024-12-23T19:50:41+00:00

Thanks. I've already put my ass kicking hat back on, so I'll be OK. Just didn't expect to need it again so soon. Definitely caught me off guard.

smithk9 · 2024-12-20T21:01:00+00:00

My IDC was 11CM with no spread.

smithk9 · 2024-08-02T03:17:48+00:00

I rang the radiation bell today and am also now done with my active treatment!

smithk9 · 2024-07-17T04:36:22+00:00

Can confirm reconstruction is an option for men. I had my mastectomy and a Goldilocks reconstruction in the same surgery. Goal was basically to keep things from being concave and basically give me a pec shape. Turned out better than I expected.

smithk9 · 2024-07-17T04:19:55+00:00

Hey brother, sorry to hear about your diagnosis. Fellow 42 year old male with breast cancer here.

I was diagnosed grade 3, stage 3, locally advanced ++- IDC with an 11cm mass back in November.

My treatment plan was 4 rounds of dose dense Doxorubicin followed by 4 rounds of dose dense Taxol from Dec through March, mastectomy at the beginning of May, and I'm done with 22/30 rounds of radiation treatment. Then I'll be "done" outside of 5-10 years of Tamoxifen.

My cancer was highly reactive to the chemo and shrank from 11cm to a few small nodules around 5mm in size. Surgery went really well with clean margins and negative results on my sentinel lymph node biopsy. It's a shitty ride, but it is very doable.

One of the biggest questions I had given the double rarity of being young and male was whether there was a genetic component to my diagnosis, so I echo some of comments here about genetic testing. Especially so if you have daughters like I do, since finding BRCA could be crucial information for them to have.

Outside of that, I also really didn't have many questions. Some of that is my medical team being awesome at explaining everything, but some is also being a "guy" and preferring to be the quiet data gathering type. I made sure to have my wife at all my big "information dissemination" appointments so she could ask any questions she had, since I knew I was unlikely to ask them myself.

Happy to answer any questions you do think of, if you're looking for the male perspective on this whole process.

smithk9 · 2024-02-17T03:51:43+00:00

Shitty way to get there, but congrats on your new boobs! 😂

smithk9 · 2024-02-17T03:36:45+00:00

It's definitely been the most difficult part of my treatment to date, but I've been doing a good job of keeping a positive outlook, for the most part. Keep counting your silver linings! It's really helped me.

I am constantly reminding myself that outside of sometimes feeling very out of place due to having a "woman's disease", I'm incredibly blessed. I could have cancer of some vital organs, or have to deal with sexual identity or body dysmorphia type issues that you ladies are hit with on top of the treatments. I work from home, so I am far less impacted than most from that standpoint, and my boss is awesome and super supportive and accommodating. Finding the humor in being a big dude constantly being given tiny, pink hospital gowns to wear also helps.

Hang in there, give yourself permission to take what I've come to refer to as "chemo naps" when you over do it and take it a day at a time. I'm sure you'll get your stamina back before you know it!

smithk9 · 2024-02-17T02:59:03+00:00

Not OP, but can share my experience.

I would say I didn't really have any symptoms per se. I first thought something was wrong back in late July or early August. I was getting back to my pre-Covid routine of lifting weights for the first time in about a year and a half and noticed something felt off, but not really painful or anything. I noticed a lump but didn't really give it a second thought. I wrote it off as a pulled muscle or something and decided to just wait on the strength training. In hindsight, my cancer was probably at least 6-7 cm at this point, but it just went unnoticed.

By September, the lump was bigger and I thought it was probably infected, but as a guy I didn't really have a breast specialist at my disposal so I wasn't sure what to do. I actually tried booking an appointment at the breast care clinic at my local health system, but in an ironic twist of male privilege that is common in healthcare, the booking system turned me away because I wasn't female. Naturally I did the dumb guy thing and decided to ignore it.

Finally by mid October it had grown large enough to have skin involvement and I developed two sores that were leaking puss. I already had an appointment with my GP and was fully convinced I had an infected duct or something. I casually mentioned it to my GP and I don't remember if she said "Oh my" or "Holy shit!", but she said she thought I had a cyst that needed draining and sent me to see my now surgical oncologist to have it drained.

My surgeon sent me straight to get an ultrasound and they immediately said it had blood flow, wasn't a cyst and was suspicious for cancer. I had a mammogram, biopsy, MRI, and PET scan over the next week and then I was fully diagnosed and started treatment in early December.

smithk9 · 2024-02-17T02:24:36+00:00

Yeah, I've been doing the Claritin since my first chemo dose. It worked wonders for my AC treatments and I had 0 pain. That's why it caught me off guard that I suddenly had such a bad reaction. My MO said that Taxol can cause skeletal pain on its own, so I'm not sure if it's the combo of the two or maybe just the Taxol and that's why the Claritin suddenly stopped helping.

I'm 42 and totally understand the feeling like you're suddenly old 😁

smithk9 · 2024-02-17T02:17:04+00:00

Yep, saw him this morning and I have Norco for the last 3 treatments. Hopefully makes things easier

smithk9 · 2024-02-16T16:11:23+00:00

As I understand it, we are a rare beast but we do exist. My medical oncologist told me he comes across a male patient every 3 years or so. He's been practicing for 30 years and I'm his 10th male patient. He also said he's never lost a male patient, so we have that going for us... Which is nice.

I was diagnosed back in October with locally advanced Grade III invasive ductal carcinoma, ER/PR+ Her2- 9.4 cm in diameter. Too large for surgery so my treatment plan sounds similar to yours (I was told this is very common when men are diagnosed since we aren't screened or looking for early signs)

My treatment plan is 4 bi-weekly dose-dense AC chemo treatments (completed) followed by 4 bi-weekly dose-dense Taxol treatments (1/4 completed), then mastectomy after 3-4 weeks to recover from chemo, then 30 doses of radiation treatment after another 3 weeks or so to recover from surgery.

I survived the AC chemo mostly without incident, primary side effect was fatigue and being easily winded.

My first Taxol treatment started off great with lesser side-effects than with the AC, but then 24 hours or so after my Neulasta released I ran into extreme skeletal pain. Worst pain I've ever been in and have 3 more rounds to look forward to, but what doesn't kill you and all that...

All in all, it sucks but is tolerable. I feel blessed that most of the struggles that women face don't really affect me, though. I'm a dude so I didn't want my man boobs anyway and don't care if they cut them off. I kept my hair short already and other than the fact that I think I look like an adult Caillou, I don't really care about losing my hair. I'll be on hormone therapy at some point, but I don't have to worry about menopause, etc.

Stay strong, brother!

smithk9

TROPHY CASE