The Lies and Statistics of the Breast Cancer Lobby

In the US, nearly 300 thousand women are diagnosed with breast cancer every year. Nearly 40 thousand women die. About 1 in 8 women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime.

Breast cancer is the celebrity of the cancer world. Celebrities such as Kathy Bates, Ann Romney and Edie Falco survive to appear on television and commercials during the one month every year dedicated to raising the awareness for breast cancer. 

It's also not surprising that all this media attention is getting results. 25% of research grants and 18% of the money went to breast cancer, more than twice the next type (lung cancer).

Unfortunately, this focus on breast cancer is killing women!

 

The Folly of Allocating Resources by Media Buzz

When we talk about disease, prevalence isn't everything. We really should ask 3 questions:

• How prevalent is it?
• How lethal is it?
• How long does it take to die from it?

How about breast cancer?

• 300,000 will be diagnosed (1 in 8)
• 40,000 will die 
• 89% will live past 5 years, 77% will live past 15 years

Meet the devil - Pancreatic Cancer

• 43,920 will be diagnosed 
• 37,390 will die 
• 80% will not last the year, 96% will not live past 5 years.

This is the exact opposite of breast cancer. There are no inspirational tales of survival. There are no celebrities available to tell their story. No one survives to start a support group, go fundraising or lobby for more research. They die before they get a chance.

 

The Problem

The problem with the breast cancer lobby is that it worked. It solved the problem. Women today have an excellent chance of a long and normal life.

Every year, nearly 20,000 women in the US die from pancreatic cancer. It's about half the number of deaths from breast cancer. But they die a lot faster. Most don't last the year compared to the vast majority who survive to live a full lifetime for breast cancer.

It's time to shift the focus elsewhere.

www.breastcancer.org
www.cancer.org
www.pancreatic.org