Mathew Knowles, the father of music powerhouses Beyonc Knowles-Carter and Solange Knowles, on Saturday penned an opinion piece encouraging men to get tested for breast cancer.

Knowles wrote the op-ed for USA Today on the one-year anniversary of sharing his diagnosisof Stage 1A breast cancer and called for an inclusive term that doesnt embarrass men or prevent them from seeking the care they need.

It wasnt comforting to walk into my first oncology appointment through doors that read Womens Breast Clinic and to be greeted with the question, am Ihere for my wife? Knowles wrote. Since Ive shared my diagnosis, countless men have secretly shared their male chest cancer diagnosis with me, as they were too ashamed to talk openly about having breast cancer.

The music executive told Good Morning America last year that breast cancer affected several women in his family, including his aunt and cousins.

After his scheduled mastectomy, he learned that he had the BRCA2 gene mutation that put him at a higher risk of breast, prostate and pancreatic cancers and melanoma.

Im grateful to say Im cancer-free today and have the knowledge to make important lifestyle choices that hopefully keep me in remission, such as getting a mammogram every six months, Knowles wrote. Im perhaps even more grateful this discovery spurred my kids to take their own medical genetic tests to learn their own risks and better inform the decisions they make my newfound knowledge also became theirs.

He has since partnered with a medical genetics company, Invitae, and encouraged readers to get screenings done for gene mutations.

Its foolish that so few of us take advantage of this information thats more affordable and accessible than ever. Who doesn't want to be able to get ahead of potentially life-changing diseases or health conditions? Knowledge is power, he wrote.

There will be approximately 2,620 new cases of invasive breast cancer diagnosed in men in the year 2020, according to the American Cancer Society.

Breast cancer is about 100 times less common among white men than among white women.It is about 70 times less common among Black men than Black women, and Black men typically have a worse prognosis.

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Beyonc's father in op-ed urges men to get tested for breast cancer | TheHill - The Hill

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