Given the number of non-stop advertisements, endorsements, and multi-million-dollar fundraising events all aimed at "Breast Cancer Awareness," one would think that most Americans have been stricken blind and deaf and have spent the last thirty years living in caves without television or radio reception.
The narrative that the breast cancer lobby feeds us is that there is a funding crisis; that breast cancer is on the verge of killing millions of people every day, and that without more "awareness," breasts everywhere are going to develop cancerous lumps and women across America will be forced to have double mastectomies, leaving us a breast-less nation, devoid of lady lumps.
The reality is that breast cancer receives more than 2x the amount of money received by the next highest funded cancer - lung cancer. Actually, to be more specific, if you add up the amount of money spent on the two cancers more common than breast cancer ($582.4 Million), you still wouldn't come close to the amount spent on breast cancer ($631.2 Million).
In fact, there are a lot of inconvenient truths about cancer funding that leave me feeling a bit ill at ease about the whole process, and yet, despite my very valid protests and concerns, I am likely to be called to task over my final assertion: We are aware of breast cancer; give it a rest.
In order to understand how cancer statistics are listed, we must understand two basic terms: "incidence" and "mortality."
"Incidence" is the number of new diagnoses in any given year; "Mortality" is the number of deaths attributed to a specific diagnosis in any given year.
It is essential that people learn the difference between these numbers in order to understand how disproportionate the funding for cancers really is.
Here are some basic facts about cancer:
The five most common cancers (in decreasing order of incidence): The Amount Spent in 2010 (Millions)
1.) Lung : $281.9 Million
2.) Prostate : $300.5 Million
3.) Breast : $631.2 Million
4.) Colorectal : $270.4
5.) Bladder : $22.6
Did you get that? The third most common cancer received well more than double the amount of money spent on the first most common cancer. This is just based on incidence. Let's compare incidence to mortality in 2010 and tack on funding for the same year:
Cancer : Incidence : Mortality : Amount Spent (in Millions)
Lung : 222,520 : 157,300 : $281.9 Million
Prostate : 217,730 : 32,050 : $300.5 Million
Breast : 209,060 : 40,230 : $631.2 Million
Colorectal : 142,570 : 51,370 : $270.4 Million
Bladder : 70,530 : 14,680 : $22.6 Million
Once again, did you catch that? Lung cancer, which has almost 4x as many mortalities and a considerably higher incidence to mortality rate, receives less than half of the funding awarded to breast cancer.
This is not a new phenomenon. The New York Times released an article in March of 2008 detailing the amount of money spent versus the mortality rate of cancer in 2006, and the figures were ridiculous even then.
Then, there are the endless number of different organizations and campaigns raising money for breast cancer: Think Pink, I <3 Boobies, Susan G. Komen, National Breast Cancer Foundation, et al. That doesn't even begin to enumerate the number of high-dollar corporate sponsorships from Nike, every major sport (NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL...all male organizations), Subway, McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King, Wal*Mart, Victoria's Secret, et al.
Before anyone goes and gets their underwire in a twist, I am not proposing that we start an "I Hate Boobies" campaign. I am, however, suggesting that we take a step back and realize that we have turned breast cancer into the "Sexy Cancer." People are now so aware of cancer that they don't really care or understand what they're supporting.
Reality: Nothing will change in terms of funding. Breast cancer will continue to receive a disproportionate amount of funding, regardless of how loudly people scream about it. Kids will keep wandering around in their pink bracelets without really knowing or understanding what they're supporting.
The only real way to change this alarming trend is to take the time to educate yourself about cancer facts and statistics, and donate money where it can best be used.
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