Can someone tell why there is so much public attention given to breast cancer?

Question

I mean, sure breast cancer is very scary and all, but it has the third highest death rate of the cancers, preceeded by lung and colon. Sure a lot of cases of lung cancer are directly related to smoking but what about colon cancer? Colon cancer attacks men and women and we hardly ever hear anything about it. My wife had colon cancer and until she did, we never realized how many people die of this each year. Why doesn't everyone know this? I guess I am on a rant, but if there is a cancer that does not descriminate by gender and more people die from it, why doesn't everyone know all there is to know about it? Also, my wife was only 36 when diagnosed, so it is not an age thing either.

Answer 1

Follow the money trail. Which ever treatment collects the most revenue wins. I know this sounds cruel, but its a fact of life.

People like you and I have to make colon cancer known and early detection saves lives.

Educate yourselves on prevention of cancer, you won't find the literature in the medical box, so your going to have to look into the nutritional paradigm, because the body can recognize and keep cancer at bay if functioning optimally.

Answer 2

First of all, you have my sympathies on the death of your spouse. In the range of traumatic events, death of a spouse is #1. And feeling that the world has no idea that colon cancer is so widespread can only have made her death feel more futile than ever.

Unfortunately our (US) society seems to rely on the publicity of the afflictions of celebrities to raise awareness of specific illnesses. And sometimes that translates into research $, and at least into encouraging people to go for pre-emptive diagnostic procedures. It's so like politics - it's not the most qualified who get to reign, it's the ones with the biggest fund-raising capabilities.

I remember a couple of years back when Katie Couric's husband died of colon cancer, and then she had a colonoscopy "live" on tv to help people fear the procedure less (honestly, there's nothing to fear, I've had it and slept though the entire thing...). So maybe things like that help. But in my way of thinking, the $$ in health care is going into big dollar drug manufacturing and insurance (or should I say, the insurance companies not wanting to insure or pay), and not into preventive medicine. And we all lose.

So again, condolences on the loss of your wife. I think our society is not concentrating on the greater good anymore. Just the pocket-lining of the rich and industrial.

b

Answer 3

1] most people believe all lung cancers are caused by smoking [ they aren't ]. Youngest patient I took care of was 22, and had never smoked - died within three months.
[ 213,380 new cases; 160,390 deaths ].
2] no one likes to discuss their colon, even with a spouse
[ 153,760 new cases; 52,180 deaths ]
3] breasts are usually attractive, unlike lungs and colons - and other people appreciate them. Youngest patient I took care of was also 22 - and six months pregnant.
4] breast cancer is second most common cancer occuring in women [ 178,489 new cases; 40,460 deaths ], after skin cancer. [ over 1,000,000 new cases; over 2,000 deaths ].
Breast cancer also occurs in men. [ 0.5% in US ]- 2,030 new cases; 450 deaths.
Breast cancer is not 'reversed' - and not necessarily 'preventable' either.
Although I had regular mammographies, and had no family history of breast cancer or any risk factor other than being overweight, I had a stage three a cancer - requiring mastectomy, chemo, radiation, and hormone therapy.
I have now had four breast surgeries, and am still not done.
[ skin problem as result of chemo ].
All breast cancers are not visible on mammography [ which by the way was always painful to me - squishing does not begin to describe it - flattening to 1 inch thick, maybe ].
I have also had ultrasounds, and a needle biopsy, and a core biopsy [ gigantic needle under ultrasound ].
All cancers are important, all can be painful, and all have difficult or painful procedures involved.

Answer 4

You must remember that breast cancer advocacy and education has all come from the private sector and not from the medical field. All fundraising and education has come about through the efforts of one business woman.

The reason for the public attention for breast cancer is due to the organizational skills of Evelyn Lauder who heads Estee Lauder Cosmetics. In 1992, Evelyn Lauder took the idea for a pink ribbon as a symbol to begin a national and internation crusade for research funds for breast cancer. Using her business expertise she spearheaded the campaign and raised well over $144 million in research funds. With her business connections she was able to persuade other businesses to also take up the cause to fight breast cancer.

So, it is not really that breast cancer is more important . . it is that there is a better organization that is running it.

Read more about Evelyn Lauder and the pink ribbon
http://www.elcompanies.com/the_company/evelyn_h_lauder.asp

Breast Cancer Research Foundation
http://www.bcrfcure.org/

Evelyn Lauder
http://www.evelynlauder.com/

No other type of cancer has had the organization and corporate backing that breast cancer funding has.

Answer 5

. I’m very sorry to hear about your wife. Breast cancer awareness campaigns and BC Awareness Month started as a campaign by women to raise awareness so that people knew the symptoms, examined themselves regularly, attended their routine mammograms etc. Enthusiastic participation by women made it grow into something nationally, then internationally, recognised (and then big business cashed in). Any group of people can start such an awareness campaign for any illness.

There are other cancer awareness months, ribbons etc, for example there is a prostate cancer awareness campaign and a ribbon, but as men are generally less open and less willing to talk about their health and well, their prostates, it gets less publicity and support.

Now I have had breast cancer and I agree that there are extremely irritating things about Breast Cancer Awareness campaigning, especially Pink October as the more cynical of us call it. Support for those with a deadly disease that kills on average 1,300 women a month in the UK alone has been turned into a marketing opportunity by big business, with around 1% of the cost of specially made pink stuff going to breast cancer charities, the rest into the retailers’ pockets.

The pink fluffy stuff infuriates me, and I'm not at all 'tickled pink' by Asda's (Walmart's) trivialisation of an illness that may yet kill me. October magazines carry stories from cheerful survivors who claim to have the all-clear (there is no all-clear with breast cancer), and often say bc has changed their lives for the better - very different from anybody I know who's had breast cancer.

Also I believe that the marketing and fund-raising aspects surrounding breast cancer, by trivialising a deadly disease, are leading people to believe that breast cancer is

a) 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

b) curable. (my neighbour said to me 'they've just about got breast cancer licked, haven't they?' Really? Why are they still cutting women's breasts off then?)


I've even heard it said that it's a ‘fashionable’ or 'sexy' cancer - my sexy prosthesis and sexy one-breasted body are evidence that it's no such thing.

I agree with you that awareness needs to be raised about other cancers too.
and while I hate 'competitive illness' I can see why there is resentment about an imbalance in awareness raising and fund raising. Yes, Pink October is awful in some respects and yes other cancers need awareness campaigns (many have them as I’ve said, but they don't receive so much support – or, crucially, have as much work put into them). But don't lose sight of the fact that breast cancer is a killer disease with disfiguring surgery, gruelling treatments and so far no cure, or that in the UK one in nine women will be diagnosed with it at some point in their lives, and I think that percentage is about the same in America.

One answer here says breast cancer is easier to detect; this is not necessarily the case. Like other cancers breast cancer usually has no symptoms in its early stages; mammograms are not effective for women under about 45, because their breast tissue is denser, so they may well be getting a dose of radiation with no helpful result. And while mammograms are the first warning system for older women, they cannot reliably detect cancer - scans and biopsies are required to establish whether anything suspicious spotted on a mammogram is cancerous.

Answer 6

It's not the breast cancer is a more deserving charity - it's that so many celebrities have had it and have died of it. Really, that's how it boils down. The love we have of the brave women in the media and their survivor skills. Recent commercials have addressed colon cancer as a serious threat and one that no one wants to talk about it as it doesn't have the sex and media appeal of a breast cancer. Neither are more deserving - it's just the way the cookie crumbles.

Answer 7

I think people are generally uncomfortable talking about the colon and the anal area and prevention messages are challenging to explain, especially since a colonoscopy requires things being stuck up the bum.

Answer 8

Because breast cancer is easier to reverse if you catch it early and it has the most simple test. You just stick your boob into a squishing thing and get it x-rayed. Testing for other cancers is more invasive and more expensive.

If all women know about the dangers, then it is that much easier to prevent.

Think about how many people died from other things (take your pick) because they had no idea it was bad for them?

Answer 9

Breast cancer does NOT discriminate by gender. Men get breast cancer.

Answer 10

Roughly 200,000 women get breast cancer each year.

Roughly 150,000 people get colon cancer each year.

That's one big reason.

Don't quote death rates unless you understand them.