X-Men’s Sabretooth Star Tyler Mane Reveals Breast Cancer Battle
X-Men’s Sabretooth actor Tyler Mane has gone public with a breast cancer diagnosis, breaking a silence he says he wanted to keep. The former WCW star shared the news in a candid social video, saying he’s ready to fight and urging fans to stay vigilant.
Here's a story you don't hear every day. Tyler Mane – yes, that's Sabretooth from the first X-Men film, and for those of you with long memories, a bloke who used to wrestle under the WCW banner – has just gone public with something pretty serious: he's been diagnosed with breast cancer.
From Mutants to Medicine
Mane put out a frank video on Facebook. He didn't mince words: 'I have some bad news. I start chemo today.' Now, male breast cancer is rare as hens' teeth – only about one in 750 men will ever get it, apparently – but, as he was keen to point out, it's not exactly a headline topic. In his words, most people only even hear about it when it turns up at a later stage, which doesn't exactly help anyone. Treatment outcomes, unsurprisingly, aren't great when things get spotted that late.
Mane Gets Candid
He said he wanted to make a bit of noise about it, so everyone gets the message that this is a real risk, not just a medical trivia question. He's planning to document his own cancer fight online and encouraged fans to come along for the ride: 'Send this to 10 of your friends and have them follow me. Because people need to hear this.'
The video ends with him, upright in bed, aiming the camera at himself and muttering, 'F-- cancer.' Fair play.
Why He Spoke Out After Keeping Quiet
This wasn't Mane's first instinct. In fact, in the video's caption, he admitted he wanted to keep quiet about the whole thing to begin with. Apparently, his own doctors didn't exactly leap to take him seriously, either. It was his wife, Renae Geerlings, who pushed him to have the lump checked out and removed before things got worse. That summed up the story for a lot of men: if you notice a lump where there shouldn't be one, get it checked. Don't wait until it's too late.
Male Breast Cancer: What to Look Out For
If you're wondering what the warning signs are, here's what the Mayo Clinic says you should watch for:
- A painless lump (which Mane had) or thickening of skin on the chest
- Changes to the skin – dimpling, puckering, scaling, or a change in colour
- Any changes in the nipple, like it turning inward or colour shifts
- Discharge or bleeding from the nipple
The Numbers
Just for context, the American Cancer Society puts the incidence of male breast cancer at under one percent in the US. So yes, it's rare – but not nonexistent. The average diagnosis age? Somewhere between 60 and 70, though it can crop up earlier or later.