MbShea@PWP@English@UMCP

The patient guide on the rare forms of breast cancer seeks to educate men and young women who have recently been diagnosed with breast cancer and are looking for a supplemental guide into understanding their diagnosis. This guide synthesizes work from the National Cancer Institute, Breast Cancer.org, the American Cancer Society, Susan G. Komen, the Young Survival coalition, as well as the Cleveland Clinic. Since breast cancer in men, and breast cancer in women under 40 is very rare, many patients struggle to find information that is specifically catered to them, because the majority of resources out there are targeted to women over 40 years old. This article will be split up into part 1 and part 2 .Part 1 focuses on male breast cancer, and part 2 focuses on breast cancer in women under 40. The writer gives a detailed definition of how breast cancer applies to the particular patient, along with a description of the symptoms, methods of identification and screening, treatment and pre-treatment information, as well as resources from survivors. The writer examines the purpose of early detection methods since the chances of survival are heavily dependent on which stage of cancer the patient is in when the cancer is found. If the cancer is found at an earlier stage, the pre-treatment methods will be more effective because the doctor will have enough time to explore multiple options with the patients. If the cancer is found late, many times a prompt surgical procedure is necessary without much time for the patient to review and decide on their options. The writer focuses a lot of attention on the detail of the symptoms for each type of patient since symptoms range from physical changes to hormonal changes.

WC=135

READERS PROFILE: I imagine a reader who just received a diagnosis for breast cancer and is very uneasy since prior to the doctor visit, he never believed that men could get breast cancer since they didn’t have breasts. He doesn’t understand how it is possible that his estrogen levels are high if he should have high levels of testosterone as a man. His doctor revealed which treatment options are available to him, however he is under a lot of stress and just needs an overview on which treatments he should go with. He is in stage 2 cancer and does not have a lot of time to decide.

READERS RESPONSE:
I do understand that high estrogen levels lead to breast cancer, however there is only 2 sentences going into depth about how these hormone levels are regulated. For specific issues, it would’ve been helpful to be directed to other resources from hyperlinks in order for me to find out more information about a specific cause of breast cancer that may be relevant to me. Since I have been doing a lot of research since my diagnosis, it would’ve been more convenient to have subtitles throughout the work to help me skim through the material and focus on the information that I was the most curious about.

J, can you adjust to meet this reader's needs? More on the hormonal profile? For example, men are often surprised to know that within their bodies, a number of hormones exist in stasis, including what look to be female hormones.

Section heads!

Let me know how this is mapping out. You can revise back to one case, if need be. Consult with me next week.