Health experts say that one of the biggest myths about breast cancer is that it only affects women, but doctors say that 1 in 100 men will also develop the illness.

A Monmouth County man was proactive in his treatment and became the first man to undergo a robotic mastectomy.

Leonardo resident Brian Thompson, 34, says that he made a startling discovery in the shower one day.

“I actually felt in my breasts, on the sides…there was actually a peanut-size [lump,]” the father of two says.

Thompson says that those lumps started to grow into large masses. They were not cancer, but as time went on, he says that they became more painful. He says that he went to his primary care physician, who referred him to Dr. Stephen Chagares in Tinton Falls.

"Brian was the first male robotic mastectomy performed in the world and he was really excited about it, and so was I,” Chagares says.

So what makes the procedure different from traditional methods?

"It's literally just a tool to do the same mastectomy we've always been performing, just with a much smaller incision off to the side and being able to get it all out and pull it out that way,” Chagares says. “Within a few months [the scars] will disappear into almost nothing.”

Chagares and Thompson say that they urge other men to forget the stigma of male breast cancer and be proactive about their health.

"If there's men out there who have problems, who have breast cancer, lumps, anything, talk to someone about it,” Thompson says.

"We can find so many things, that if you get them early enough are treatable and curable,” adds Chagares.

More information about the procedure can be found at Dr. Chagares's website.