Drummer Peter Criss, one of the founding members of KISS, is celebrating his good health a year after he was diagnosed with and then treated for breast cancer.

Criss, 63, told CNN he feels like “the luckiest man on the planet” and that he believes the illness was actually a blessing because it’s allowed him to speak out about the disease and raise awareness of a condition that, while rare, affects thousands of men a year.

The National Cancer Institute estimates 1,910 new cases of breast cancer among men in 2009, with 440 deaths resulting from the disease, according to CNN.

The former “Catman,” who was diagnosed after noticing a painful lump in his left breast after a workout in 2007, said men need to take a proactive stance and not buy into “this macho crap.”

“Don’t sit around playing Mr. Tough Guy,” Criss advised. “Don’t say ‘It’s going to go away.’ It might not and you might not see life anymore and how beautiful that is.

“So many people die from this. Somebody has to step up to the plate and say something to get them aware of how dangerous this is. Lots of men die: They wait, they don’t go in, they put it off.”

Criss had surgery in 2008 to remove what was initially thought to be a harmless nodule, but turned out to be cancerous.

“I flipped out,” he explained to CNN. “I just couldn’t believe it. It’s a nightmare. I was angry at everything. I couldn’t believe I had this. I was a really angry guy for a long time.”

Because the cancer was diagnosed early, something experts say rarely happens with men because they feel they’re immune from the disease and don’t get exams, Criss didn’t require additional chemotherapy or reconstructive surgery.

The drummer, who is working on an autobiography and an album, credited his family and his religion for helping him through the crisis and said he now gets a yearly mammogram, something he recommends more men do.

“It’s just important – just go get checked out. It’s not like you’re going to lose your manhood.”

Wow, I didn't know that he had that.

The father two houses away from me had a mastectomy last year for breast cancer. He's been going through the chemo.

My father's sister died from breast cancer 20 years ago.

I didn't believe this "Men can get breast cancer" the first time I heard it, but apparently it is very real. My great aunt got breast cancer and had a mastectomy and it went away but came back so they did another and hit and it seemed to have gone away but it got into her lymph nodes and that did her in 4 years ago.

No one ever becomes 'cancer free' after they have it. I hope he does his homework on bc, esp after you are cut. Cancer releases cells that travel in your body and can lodge onto another part of it.
10 years later you find a lump behind a knee- it's breast cancer. This is just a real simple explanation. Just because they don't use the word remission much any more...we're still in it.

Oh yes, for you guys out there, if you have (had) a sister with it...you are more prone to pancreatic or prostrate cancer. There are genetic tests that she can take (BRCA 1 & 2), if the mutations are present- you should take it too.

Congratulations, Pete!

I can imagine that it was a surprise for you to hear that about men getting breast cancer. I think that most women know about it. We all have the tissue to develop it. I'm sorry about your Great-Aunt.

I lost an Aunt to it. I have friends that have lost their mothers to it.

To our Aunts

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