Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Why does it seem like breast cancer is the only type of cancer anyone cares about


Why does it seem like breast cancer is the only type of cancer anyone cares about?
It seem as though breast cancer gets so much more attention than any other type of cancer. I realize that it is the most common but does that mean it is the most important? I went to a cancer support walk (to raise money because my father died of colon cancer) and I can't even describe how much emphasis was put on breast cancer and no other types. I'm sorry if this sounds a little ignorant, I don't mean it to sound that way at all. It just confuses me.
Cancer - 3 Answers
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1 :
It doesn't sound ignorant, and I understand your frustration; there is a need to raise awareness about other cancers, and while I hate 'competitive illness' I can see why there is resentment about an imbalance in awareness raising and fund raising. But the reason breast cancer has a higher profile than other cancers is simple - sheer hard work. Breast cancer awareness campaigns and Breast Cancer Awareness Month were started by ordinary women, most of them with breast cancer or who had lost family members to breast cancer, to raise awareness so that people knew the symptoms, examined themselves regularly, attended their routine mammograms etc. Enthusiastic participation and hard work by women made it grow into something nationally, then internationally, recognised (and then big business cashed in). People who campaign around illnesses are usually concerned with the illness that's affected them or their family. I know a couple who have a child with a very rare and life-threatening condition (not a cancer). Much of their time is now taken up with campaigning around this condition - fundraising and agitating for more funding for research, more education, more awareness etc. Individuals don't have unlimited time, and choose their campaigns. And that's what the women who started the breast cancer awareness campaign did, and worked their socks off. It's thanks to the hard work of those women that breast cancer is no longer the major killer and the automatic death sentence it used to be - but we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that in the US alone an average of 112 women die from breast cancer every day. That's one every 15 minutes. And the whole thing does have some negative consequences for breast cancer patients too – I believe that it's now largely counter-productive, that the marketing and fund-raising hype surrounding breast cancer, and the pink fluffiness, by trivialising a deadly disease, is leading people to believe, wrongly, that breast cancer is 1) not very serious, certainly not as serious as many other cancers (many women with breast cancer have been told – by people who don’t have it – that it’s a ‘good’ cancer to get) and 2) easily curable. Sales of the overpriced pink tat you see in shops result in a donation of as little as 1% of the price to breast cancer charities and research, with the rest going straight into retailers pockets. I truly resent the disease that - who knows - may yet kill me being turned into a marketing opportunity by Asda/Walmart and others. There are other cancer awareness months, ribbons etc; but no cancer campaign has had the sheer hard work put into it that breast cancer awareness has. Any group of people can start an awareness campaign for any illness - but if they want it to be as successful as the breast cancer campaigning, they'll have to be prepared to be as dedicated and work as hard. ===== Edit: Re the answer below - I don't think the high profile of breast cancer has a lot to do with men's obsession with breasts. Breast cancer mainly affects women over 50 and the average age at diagnosis is a little over 60. The sort of person who is obsessed with breasts has little interest in the breasts of middle-aged and elderly women - trust me on that one.
2 :
"Is The Most Common"? I thought there were many more likely chances of cancer than breast cancer? I think it is because of a couple of factors: 1. Men like boobies and anything that threatens the boobies must be destroyed! 2. Breast Cancer seems to have a high mortality rate. 3. When a woman loses a breast, even if it is reconstructed, women don't feel like women anymore because so much pressure is put on a woman's breasts... It isn't uncommon for a husband/boyfriend to stop having sex with a woman that has had a Mastectomy. Oh, and you can't point fingers at a person with breast cancer... Lung Cancer? "Oh, they SO DESERVE it... They should have known better than to smoke!" Or "Oh, they didn't smoke? They shouldn't have spent so much time in BARS getting exposed to 2nd hand smoke... They should have known better..." You can't say "Oh, well, she should have... It must be her own fault." when it comes to breast cancer. (BTW, people get lung cancer all the time and not always from smoking, that is just the most well known cause.)
3 :
Lung Cancer needs to be informed to the public and needs the MOST FUNDS because lung cancer is so crippling. NSCLC stage IV has a 1% survival rate. In general 5 out of 6 people with lung cancer die. Only 1 person out of every 6 with lung cancer live. 5 year survival rates of 14% in some Lung Cancers. It's terrible. And they need to focus on it



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Posted by breast cancer consultant at 4:57 PM