Im Offended by discriminatory Breast Cancer Awareness

[Laize]

I registered just to say that, despite the relatively angry ranting post, I agree completely with the OP.

Breast cancer awareness has gotten way out of hand. Breast cancer is a JOKE. The annual death rates for breast cancer weigh in at about 5% or less - and most of those statistics are taken from women age 55++, where "natural causes" deaths tend to skyrocket. Death rates for women under the age of 50 are astronomically low.

Now, let's look at something that gets no media attention whatsoever: Pancreatic Cancer.

Pancreatic Cancer has a 95% death rate, and long-term survivors (5 years or more since diagnosis) are never in the clear. Every day that they exist stricken with Pancreatic Cancer, they're basically waiting to drop dead with little warning. Pancreatic Cancer patients would look at all the pink ribbons and laugh, if they were still physically capable of doing so.

Why is breast cancer so popular? 98% of the time, it only effects women. 95% of the time, it's non-fatal. It's one of the most benign cancers of all time, and yet there are still billions of dollars spent yearly on TV commercials promoting its awareness and demanding its cure. Why do these women think they're entitled to so much media attention for such a small issue? Oh, right. Breasts and media just go hand-in-hand.

It makes me cringe every time I hear "We'll never stop walking until a cure is found" on the radio. If real problems like prostate cancer, lung cancer or pancreatic cancer had even a hundredth of the media coverage of breast cancer, we might be funding better treatments and actually saving lives.

I agree.

Pancreatic Cancer is no fucking joke. If asked if I'd rather donate to breast cancer or pancreatic cancer, I'll choose pancreatic every time.

The disease is terrifying. It's completely asymptomatic for all but the latest stages where it's absolutely untreatable. Even if you fell into an MRI machine the DAY the tumor became visible your chances of survival are about 1 in 20. Even if the disease NEVER metastasizes your odds of survival only increase to 1 in 5. Keep in mind these are 5-year survival rates. Not CURE rates.

By the time symptoms actually show up you have about 6 months to live.

[Wynnyelle]

God forbid people try to support a good cause.

[poser765]

I registered just to say that, despite the relatively angry ranting post, I agree completely with the OP.

Breast cancer awareness has gotten way out of hand. Breast cancer is a JOKE. The annual death rates for breast cancer weigh in at about 5% or less - and most of those statistics are taken from women age 55++, where "natural causes" deaths tend to skyrocket. Death rates for women under the age of 50 are astronomically low.

Now, let's look at something that gets no media attention whatsoever: Pancreatic Cancer.

Pancreatic Cancer has a 95% death rate, and long-term survivors (5 years or more since diagnosis) are never in the clear. Every day that they exist stricken with Pancreatic Cancer, they're basically waiting to drop dead with little warning. Pancreatic Cancer patients would look at all the pink ribbons and laugh, if they were still physically capable of doing so.

Why is breast cancer so popular? 98% of the time, it only effects women. 95% of the time, it's non-fatal. It's one of the most benign cancers of all time, and yet there are still billions of dollars spent yearly on TV commercials promoting its awareness and demanding its cure. Why do these women think they're entitled to so much media attention for such a small issue? Oh, right. Breasts and media just go hand-in-hand.

It makes me cringe every time I hear "We'll never stop walking until a cure is found" on the radio. If real problems like prostate cancer, lung cancer or pancreatic cancer had even a hundredth of the media coverage of breast cancer, we might be funding better treatments and actually saving lives.

You mentioned mortality rates. By chance did you see statistics that describe the percentage of the population who have breast cancer vs pancreatic?

Maybe, just maybe it's possible that breast cancer is more prolific and effects a larger sampling of the population...thus the greater public awareness of it?

Just looked. It looks like in 2012 there were a quarter million new cases of breast cancer compared to 44k pancreatic cancer cases.

[Darsithis]

God forbid people try to support a good cause.

How is it a good cause? While I disagree with some points, breast cancer is very easy to detect and treat. There are worse cancers that should get more of a spotlight than breast cancer

[Wells]

How is it a good cause? While I disagree with some points, breast cancer is very easy to detect and treat. There are worse cancers that should get more of a spotlight than breast cancer

Because a lot of that money is going towards encouraging and teaching women to check for it and it is very common?

[poser765]

How is it a good cause? While I disagree with some points, breast cancer is very easy to detect and treat. There are worse cancers that should get more of a spotlight than breast cancer

Faulty logic. Just because there better causes doesn't negate the positive of another lesser cause.

[Laize]

You mentioned mortality rates. By chance did you see statistics that describe the percentage of the population who have breast cancer vs pancreatic?

Maybe, just maybe it's possible that breast cancer is more prolific and effects a larger sampling of the population...thus the greater public awareness of it?

Just looked. It looks like in 2012 there were a quarter million new cases of breast cancer compared to 44k pancreatic cancer cases.

The chance of dying from breast cancer is 1 in 36.

The chance of dying from pancreatic cancer is approximately 1 in 1.

So about 7000 women (by your numbers) died from breast cancer while 44,000 died from pancreatic.

It looks a bit different now, doesn't it?

I'm not saying breast cancer isn't serious. ALL cancer is serious. Some are just more serious than others... among the top are pancreatic cancer and glioblastoma multiforme.

Glioblastoma Multiforme only affects about 7000 Americans each year, but almost every single one of them dies within 2 years. Most within 6 months. That means GBM kills more people than breast cancer despite being FAR less common.

Median life expectancy under the best conditions is 17 months.

[Kiry]

Honestly, I'm actually glad there are causes out there pushing people to do xyz to get better or to help those around them to get better. If it didn't happen, more than likely there will not be progress towards treatment. Cancer in any form is terrible, I know because I have lost my Father to it. I wish he was here today, but he's not. So regardless of the cause, if it's prostate cancer, throat cancer, lung cancer, breast cancer...I'm contributing.

If someone is offended, so be it. That's their right. Not going to stop me from being a do "gooder" and helping out.

[poser765]

The chance of dying from breast cancer is 1 in 36.

The chance of dying from pancreatic cancer is approximately 1 in 1.

So about 7000 women (by your numbers) died from breast cancer while 44,000 died from pancreatic.

It looks a bit different now, doesn't it?

I'm not saying breast cancer isn't serious. ALL cancer is serious. Some are just more serious than others... among the top are pancreatic cancer and glioblastoma multiforme.

Glioblastoma Multiforme only affects about 7000 Americans each year, but almost every single one of them dies within 2 years. Most within 6 months. That means GBM kills more people than breast cancer despite being FAR less common.

Median life expectancy under the best conditions is 17 months.

Actually the national cancer institute says that 39 women died from breast cancer vs 37k women AND men died from pancreatic cancer.

http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/types/breast

The only point I was trying to make is that breast cancer is more common, thus the average person is far likelier to know someone with it and be able to relate to the cause for awareness. i'm not trying to argue which cancer has "the bigger penis"

[oplawlz]

Er, you do realize that by curing one form of cancer every other form of it is closer to a cure, right? If it takes boobs to get funding into cancer cure research, then power to em man.

[Laize]

Actually the national cancer institute says that 39 women died from breast cancer vs 37k women AND men died from pancreatic cancer.

http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/types/breast

The only point I was trying to make is that breast cancer is more common, thus the average person is far likelier to know someone with it and be able to relate to the cause for awareness. i'm not trying to argue which cancer has "the bigger penis"

Well I'll continue to donate to cancers that scare the shit out of me rather than cancers with, frankly, comparatively low mortality rates.

[Zeek Daniels]

Yes because lopping off body parts is truly an ideal treatment.

it was in the old days...

[someotherguy]

I don't know why you're offended. If you feel prostate and other cancers aren't getting enough attention, the answer isn't to lower awareness of breast cancer.
What you should do, is raise the awareness to the cancer you care about.
You can easily start blogging about it, maybe you can try to get on local tv to talk about it, and keep on from there.
Raise the awareness man, don't feel victimized, empower yourself.

[Laize]

Er, you do realize that by curing one form of cancer every other form of it is closer to a cure, right? If it takes boobs to get funding into cancer cure research, then power to em man.

Except that's not true at all.

Even within breast cancer there are dozens of subtypes.

There's no "cure for all cancers". That's a myth perpetuated by people who think cancers are all the same and just appear in different parts of the body.

There are literally tens of thousands of identified cancers. Each one has different causes, cell types, mutations and behaviors.

Curing one form of breast cancer won't do anything except cure one form of breast cancer.

---------- Post added 2012-10-04 at 09:49 PM ----------

And I mean... here's the list of cancers by organ and mortality....

Pancreatic cancer - 97%
Liver cancer - 95%
Esophageal cancer - 92%
Lung cancer - 87%
Stomach cancer - 83%
Brain cancer - 75%
Ovarian cancer - 61%
Oral cancer - 49%
Kidney cancer - 47%
Rectal cancer - 46%
Colon cancer - 43%
Laryngeal cancer - 34%
Cervical cancer - 34%
Prostate cancer - 26%
Breast cancer - 23%
Bladder cancer - 22%
Skin cancer - 19%
Uterine cancer - 17%
Thyroid cancer - 6%

Breast cancer isn't even close to the top.

Shouldn't we probably be working on almost ANY other kind of cancer?

[Wells]

Curing one form of breast cancer won't do anything except cure one form of breast cancer.

That's not really being charitable enough. Cancers are different sure, but that doesn't mean there isn't anything to be learned in curing one that can't be useful elsewhere.

[Frozenbeef]

I just hate the female only type events eg. race for life >.<

[poser765]

Well I'll continue to donate to cancers that scare the shit out of me rather than cancers with, frankly, comparatively low mortality rates.

lol that's fine, buddy, i'm really not trying to change your mind. Just pointing out that just because one form a cancer has a higher chance of mortality doesn't negate the value of supporting breast cancer awareness.

[Wells]

I just hate the female only type events eg. race for life >.<

If you as a dude want to go put on a pink shirt and take part they'll be more than happy to have you.

[Deleted]

My first intuition tells me you don't have any balls. That's just what I get from this, no offense. :P

Infracted

Infracted for FLAMING? Geez.. I just meant it sounds like something a girl would say since they don't know how sensitive the balls are, and how protective most guys are about them.

Like girls can squize their boobs pretty roughly with no pain, try doing that with your balls :P.

[poser765]

If you as a dude want to go put on a pink shirt and take part they'll be more than happy to have you.

True. I see just as many men at race for the cure as I do women.