ROY, Wash. - Male breast cancer -- it's just not something men like to talk about. Many men don't even know it exists. But there's a former NASCAR mechanic who says it's a life-and-death issue for men.

The high-octane, high-testosterone world of NASCAR is the last place you'd think of male breast cancer. But NASCAR mechanic John King is living proof that male breast cancer can strike even the most macho.

Three years ago, King was diagnosed with the disease that he thought only hit women. "It had spread into my blood system, spread into the lymph nodes underneath my arm," he said. "I had nine tumors, 3 in one lung and 6 in another lung and one on a kidney."

He has Stage IV breast cancer, the most serious stage.

Each year, hundreds of men die because they spot it too late when it's already taken hold.

John recommends men get mammograms just like women.

"If I had known what I had and taken care of it sooner, maybe it might not have been stage IV."

He says men over 50 and men with a family history of breast cancer are more at risk.

Look for the signs:

a lump on the breast

nipple pain

inverted nipple

sores on the nipple

enlarged lymph nodes under the arm

I asked him, "so I don't have any of those symptoms showing up, but I'm over 50. Would you recommend that I go in for a mammogram?" King replied, "It wouldn't hurt if you have cancer history in your family."

And don't be afraid to talk about it.

"It's one of those hush, hush conversations you didn't used to have around the dinner table and it needs to be," said John's wife Beth King.

Breast cancer has taken John off the NASCAR circuit, but it's giving him more time to spend with his grandson while he gets the yellow 'caution' flag out warning you about the dangers of male breast cancer.

About 2,000 men were diagnosed with breast cancer last year.

For more information:

www.abcf.org