Exclusive | The number of men with breast cancer near Ground Zero in NYC is skyrocketing – now 90 times the national average

The number of men who have developed breast cancer while working or living around Ground Zero has skyrocketed, The Post has learned.

The federal Centers for Disease Control reports that 91 men in the World Trade Center Health Program have been diagnosed with breast cancer to date, six times the number first reported in 2018 — and 90 times the average national, according to the lawyer. for some of the victims.

Breast cancer is rare in men – approximately 1 in 100,000 men are affected by the potentially fatal disease.

It’s so uncommon that many men don’t even know they might have breast cancer, compared to women who get tested regularly.

But 91 of the 98,590 men in WTCHP were diagnosed with it, according to data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control.

That rate is 90 times the national average based on federal health records, said attorney Michael Barasch, who represents 54 male breast cancer patients enrolled in WTCHP.

“These numbers may be the tip of the iceberg,” Barasch said. “Breast cancer is really exploding among men.”

There are more than 50 cancers, illnesses and other ailments believed to be linked to the boiling of toxins that were released into the air when the two towers of the World Trade Center in Manhattan collapsed after terrorists crashed hijacked planes into the buildings in September. 11, 2001. Breast cancer is one of them.

First responders, officers and residents who were at Ground Zero south of Canal Street and became ill with breast cancer are eligible for government-funded treatment and $250,000 in awards from the Victim Compensation Fund if they enroll in the Program Health WTC.

One of the WTCHP male breast cancer survivors is Jeffrey Glennon, 60, of East Hills, Long Island.

Glennon had been a supervisor at Weeks Marine at Pier 25 near Stuyvesant High School, transporting hazardous waste on barges trucked from Ground Zero to the then-closed Fresh Kills landfill.

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He discovered a pea-sized lump on his breast while taking a shower in April 2019 and was later diagnosed with breast cancer.

There was no doubt in his mind that spending 11 months transporting burning and hazardous materials from the WTC was responsible for his terrible illness, he said.

“We worked in 12-hour shifts. The garbage trucks just kept coming,” Glennon said.

“I was surprised but not surprised. I spent a lot of time at Ground Zero.”

He also suffers from gastroesophageal reflux and sleep apnea. He recently had surgery on his left shoulder and two hip replacements.

“You wait for the other shoe to drop. It’s been a challenge,” said Glennon, who has three children.

He credited his wife, Deborah, with helping him get through and recover, saying she was there “every step of the way.”

Men as well as women — especially those who worked or lived around the burning Ground Zero — should be screened for breast cancer because “men can get breast cancer, too,” he said.

Joseph Polcaro, 62, a New Jersey corrections officer, volunteered to work in a tent for the city’s morgue on weekends, collecting the remains of responders and others killed in the terror attacks when the towers collapsed.

Polcaro was diagnosed with breast cancer in October 2019 after moving to Florida.

He recalled seeing Beyonce Knowles’ father Mathew on a TV segment revealing he had breast cancer after first becoming aware something was wrong when he saw blood stains on his T-shirt.

Polcaro had noticed blood stains on a shirt from his chest area two weeks ago.

“I was never told to control myself. I’m a guy,” Polcaro said.

“I had breast cancer for a while. I didn’t know. It just came out of the blue.”

Results from sonograms and a biopsy revealed that the cancer had infected both of his breasts, a very unusual diagnosis for a man.

“The doctor said: ‘I have bad news for you. I’ve never seen this in men before, you have bilateral breast cancer,’” Polcaro recalled.

Polcaro said he sought aggressive treatment, a double mastectomy. He had to take care of his 22-year-old daughter, who is developmentally disabled.

He underwent surgery in December. 12, 2019.

Polcaro suffered a post-operative infection that delayed his overall treatment, which included 12 weeks of radiation.

Men have breast tissue like women, only less, he noted.

He said he was not genetically predisposed to breast cancer and claims breathing dirty morgue dust caused his illness.

“They had every carcinogen known to mankind in the center of the World Trade Center,” Polcaro said.

“I remember that the body bags came very dusty.”

He is still taking cancer drugs.

Men should do what women are told to do — self-examine and go to the doctor, Barasch said.

“Don’t ignore the symptoms. If you feel or notice something with your breast, get it checked out. “Women go for regular check-ups,” he said.

Meanwhile, of the 31,430 women enrolled in the WTCHP, 24.16%, or 3,540, were diagnosed with breast cancer — also a much higher rate than the national average for women, which is 129.4 per 100,000, according to Barasch.

A representative of the city’s Health Department said the agency needs more time to review the breast cancer data before responding.

A city Health Department study conducted in 2022 found that the incidence of female breast cancer in the vicinity of Ground Zero was lower than that in the state’s population as a whole, the representative said.