Why is breast cancer the rock star of cancers?

[ghostsinthemachine]

Today, another run, walk, whatever for breast cancer. Ball games, for breast cancer. The NFL, MLB, NHL and NBA teams all don pink uniforms for breast cancer, but scant few, if any, of the players will contract the disease. I have pink hats, ribbons and a lite up tie all supporting breast cancer causes (and women's causes). The Susan Komen thing. . So many events supporting breast cancer causes.

I've never seen a colon cancer thing. (2 friends including my ex wife died from this in the ladt year and one of my BFFs has a recurrance) Or an esophageal (what I just hopefully beat). Or all the other cancers that seem to get stuffed in the general cancer bag, while breast cancer and its charities are billion dollar enterprises. I know many women who have survived BC, and a couple that didn't, but I know a lot of people that have, had, or surely are going to have, all kinds of cancers.
Is the incidence of BC so much higher to warrant the disparity?

[csziggy]

1. Because the organization pushing it is sucessfull at pushing themselves

In my opinion they do as much PR about themselves as they do to raise money for the cause.

[stonecutter357]

2. try bing , google.

About 1 in 8 U.S. women (about 12%) will develop invasive breast cancer over the course of her lifetime. In 2017, an estimated 252,710 new cases of invasive breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed in women in the U.S., along with 63,410 new cases of non-invasive (in situ) breast cancer. http://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/understand_bc/statistics .

[Mosby]

11. 225K cases of lung cancer per year

And it's the leading cause of cancer deaths in both men and women.

[dalton99a]

30. +1

[pnwmom]

48. 80-90% of lung cancer cases could be prevented by not smoking.

Breast cancer not only affects more people than lung cancer; breast cancer isn't easily avoided.

https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/lung/basic_info/risk_factors.htm

https://www.cancer.gov/types/common-cancers

[Mosby]

51. The biggest risk factor for all disease is weight.

Heavyburden: Obesity may be even deadlier than thought
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/amp/heavy-burden-obesity-may-be-even-deadlier-thought-6C10930019


https://www.cancer.org/latest-news/how-your-weight-affects-your-risk-of-breast-cancer.html

[pnwmom]

53. It's a LOT easier to never smoke than it is to lose weight. And everyone must eat

but no one must smoke.

So campaigns against lung cancer concentrate their efforts, correctly, on smoking prevention.

[raccoon]

57. Thank you. Nt

[Horse with no Name]

3. They have a very good marketing team

Most of their marketing goes to pay administrative salaries and for more marketing...but people think they are helping so they "buy pink".
Their goal is "awareness".....not paying for research.
So I suppose they meet that goal.

[Mariana]

6. Who is "they"?

What is the name of the organization? I honestly don't know.

[tammywammy]

7. Susan G Komen.

[Horse with no Name]

13. Thanks. n/t

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

15. Yep, they just about "own" the color Pink.

Well, except for Mary Kay

[LeftInTX]

4. It used to be that breast cancer was never discussed

Shirley Temple went public with her breast cancer in 1973 and it was kind of a big thing. It is also easy to diagnose. And one of the easier cancers to treat if caught early.

I agree that colon cancer is another one that is easy to detect and can easily be treated if precancerous. I just can't see people wearing brown in honor of colonscopy month.....(If you know what I mean)

Sorry about your esophageal cancer....

[ReformedGOPer]

14. Colon cancer symbol is blue

[LeftInTX]

17. Good to know!!!

[ChazII]

5. Good question

and the answers provided are good as well. Both my parents died from cancer, mom had lung even though she never smoked, and dad passed from pancreatic cancer. I have had 10 other friends who have passed from cancer these past 17 years and none of them had breast cancer either.

[Iggo]

8. You knew the answer before you typed the question.

[DavidDvorkin]

9. My wife, who is a breast cancer survivor, has complained about that.

[shanny]

10. imo it was used to co-opt the feminist movement.

In the 80s? 90s? activism became all about breast cancer awareness....and nothing else.

[Trust Buster]

12. The NFL has been aggressively marketing their product to women. Huge growth potential.

[NurseJackie]

16. It's October. Here's a helpful chart...

https://www.choosehope.com/calendar-of-cancer-awareness-months

January

Cervical Cancer Awareness Month (Teal/White)

February

National Cancer Prevention Month
Gallbladder and Bile Duct Cancer Awareness Month (Kelly Green)

March

Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month (Dark Blue)
Multiple Myeloma Awareness Month (Burgundy)
National Kidney Cancer Awareness Month (Orange)

April

Testicular Cancer Awareness Month (Orchid)
Esophageal Cancer Awareness Month (Periwinkle)
Head and Neck Cancer Awareness Month (Burgundy/Ivory)

May

Brain Cancer Awareness Month (Grey)
Melanoma and Skin Cancer Awareness Month (Black)
Bladder Cancer Awareness Month (Marigold/Blue/Purple)

June

National Cancer Survivors Day

July

Sarcoma Awareness Week (Yellow)

September

Childhood Cancer Awareness Month (Gold)
Gynecologic Cancer Awareness Month (Peach)
Hodgkin's Lymphoma Awareness Month (Violet)
Leukemia Awareness Month (Orange)
Lymphoma Awareness Month (Lime Green)
Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month (Teal)
Thyroid Cancer Awareness Month (Teal/Pink/Blue)
Prostate Cancer Awareness Month (Light Blue)

October

Breast Cancer Awareness Month (Pink)
Liver Cancer Awareness Month (Emerald Green)

November

Lung Cancer Awareness Month (White)
Carcinoid Cancer Awareness Month (Zebra Stripe)
National Family Caregivers Month (Plum)
Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month (Purple)
Stomach Cancer Awareness Month (Periwinkle)

[ghostsinthemachine]

19. Yeah, but

Not really an equivalence.

[pnwmom]

55. Why should there be an equivalence? The one serious cancer that's the second most common

has an extremely simple, effective, preventative measure: don't smoke.

[jberryhill]

26. The spring cancer season is lovely in New England

[madinmaryland]

39. August is tRump cancer awareness month. Nt.

[onenote]

18. Because it strikes a much younger population than all other cancers combined

The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2017 there will be nearly 26,000 new cases of breast cancer diagnosed among women under 45 years of age. The combined number of new cases of colon/rectum, lung/brachus, and prostate cancer (men and women) is less than half that.

Broken down:

25,750 new cases of breast cancer among women under 45 .
3840 new cases of colon/rectal cancer among men under 45.
3490 new cases of colon/rectal cancer among women under 45
1420 new cases of lung/brachus cancer among men under 45.
1660 new cases of lung/brachus cancer among women under 45.
930 new cases of prostate cancer among those under 45.
https://www.cancer.org/content/dam/cancer-org/research/cancer-facts-and-statistics/annual-cancer-facts-and-figures/2017/estimated-new-cases-for-the-four-major-cancers-by-sex-and-age-group-2017.pdf

[ghostsinthemachine]

20. Good info...

Thanks

[alwaysinflux]

21. If that's the case, then why...

...aren't mammograms recommended until age 45?

[Ms. Toad]

24. Because the risks outweigh the benefits.

Even though the breast cancer population at younger ages is larger than other cancer populations, it is still a miniscule portion of the female population at that age. There isn't much direct risk to a mammogram, but younger women tend to have denser breasts that both hide actual cancer and can mimic cancer. So there are both risk of false positives (often requiring invasive testing, and emotional damage to rule out cancer), and false negatives (given women with cancer a false sense of security that might cause them to miss the physical symptoms when their cancer gets large enough to create them).

It's a balancing act - and the powers that be have decided 45 is the magic age when the benefits of routine screening of the entire population outweigh the risks of screening the entire population. (Mammograms are recommended at earlier ages for women who are at known high risk - becuase in an at risk population the benefits outweigh the risks at a much earlier age)

[onenote]

25. First, that recommendation is controversial

Second, it is limited to women without certain markers that make them higher risk candidates for breast cancer, such as family history of breast cancer or prior radiation treatment to the chest.

[JenniferJuniper]

32. They don't prevent cancer (despite the false mantra)

and they save very few lives. The small number that actually might be saved are offset by the huge over-diagnosis numbers.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/05/05/stop-routine-screening-for-breast-cancer-for-women-under-50-science-has-shown-it-doesnt-save-lives/?utm_term=.d8ba04eaca04

[elleng]

27. Thanks. Didn't know that.

My mother died of it when she was 30-something.

[Ms. Toad]

22. It's pinktober. That's why you're seeing it this month.

Can't wait for it to be over. It's largely invisible the rest of the year.

I have breast cancer, and last year was my first experience with pinktober as someone impacted by breast cancer. My reaction to walking into the doctor's office for imaging because there were new questions about the other breast, being handed a pink hot/cold pack, and encountering bright pink towels in every bathroom was not pleasant.

As a side note, since I have beeen very open about having breast cancer, and its emotional impact on my has been virtually nil, I didn't expect to react the same way my former boss did to pinktober. (She told no one, aside from her employees, was an emotional wreck, etc. . . and she hates pinktober with a passion.) I'm not so bad this time around - but we'll see after my doctor's visit next week I'm just hoping it is late enough in the month that they have run out of pink crap.

[JonLP24]

23. NFL is changing its approach to include all cancers

In the awareness month I think between weeks 4 through 8.

[still_one]

28. I guess those AIDs walks don't count. It is insensitive to suggest that one disease is

getting more attention than it deserves.

A good number of people and families have been personally touched by this disease, and it is divisive and cruel to suggest it doesn't deserve the attention it gets.

More to the point, research, knowledge, and progress done on one type of cancer helps expand knowledge of all cancers, and their treatment

[ghostsinthemachine]

31. Not what I said at all

I simply wanted to know why breast cancer got so much attention but other cancers (not AIDS) didn't. I'm definitely not saying what you suggest.

[cwydro]

33. I understood what you said.

This pinktober thing can be overwhelming to those of us affected by any cancer.

[Iwasthere]

29. We ALL have cancer Just build up your immune system

Only a matter of time before YOU have it grow out of control. Bad air (and not enough), bad water, lousy nutrition... and chemicals!!! (Anti petsperants, sun tan lotion, soaps, bleach, yard chemicals. Clean it up and live.

[irisblue]

34. Colon Cancer Collation

Has a listing of upcoming runs & fund raisers.

[Azathoth]

35. It's the only cancer that crosses into identity politics

The pink ribbon campaign has, whether intentionally or unintentionally, evolved into a larger vehicle for solidarity with women and the struggles that women face.

That kind of generalizing has two convenient psychological side effects. First, it makes women as a group feel like they are "in this together," as opposed to other kinds of cancer that most people see with a sort of detached compassion ("I'm not affected since I'm statistically unlikely to get it, but I hope they cure those poor nameless people who suffer from it." ) Second, it shifts attention away from the grim realities of cancer itself -- something most people don't want to focus on. It's much easier to invest yourself in a cause for "strong and brave women" who are "conquering cancer" rather than for people withering away in pain and dying from chemo-induced infections in a hospital ward somewhere.

[Ms. Toad]

44. Many women with breasts cancer do not feel it shifts attention away from the grim realities

I didn't understand why my boss hated pinktober. But she dealt with her cancer as a victim, and with shame. She did not tell anyone she did not have to tell, she worked through her entire treatment - even when she was so exhausted and brain-dead from radiation and chemo that she couldn't see straight, cried buckets when her hair fell out - and immediately started wearing a wig to hide it (it was specifically to hide it- not because she liked her appearance better with hair). I figured it bothered her because she wanted to pretend - even to herself - that she didn't have cancer.

Then I was diagnosed with breast cancer a year and a half ago. I dealt with it completely differently. It had almost no emotional impact on me. Partly I was too busy to take time out for it - but also I am the 5th breast cancer in 4 generations, all of whom are either still living or who died with (not from) cancer (my great-grandmother from old age near 100 a few years after diagnosis, my grandmother at 85 from complications of emphysema a quarter century after diagnosis, and 2 decades and 5 years for my mother's 2 primary breast cancers - still alive). So I see it as a manageable condition - not a death sentence. I worked through treatment - but had made plans for people to take over my job if I was impacted by treatment. I can honestly say I had only one day when I was more exhausted than I might have been without breast cancer. I told my barely-former students about my diagnosis because I needed to work with them during the two active treatment months - and they needed advance warning because preparing for the bar exam is no tim to be surprised by a vanishing support system, as well as my boss and co-workers, etc.

So I was quite surprised to find I reacted almost as strongly to pinktober as my boss did when I encountered it last year for the first time as someone with breast cancer. I don't mind it so much out in the wild, but I really resented it within the doctor's offices (pink towels, pink hot-cold packs, pink discharge papers, etc.). It's possible it was because I was in the middle of going through a second cancer scare - but I don't think so. I'll know more about that next week when I go in for my first pinktober visit this year.

So it may be marketed as a "strong brave women," and it may garner a lot of support for people not directly impacted - but most women with breast cancer I've encountered don't see it the way you've described.

[tammywammy]

45. Have you read the book Pink Ribbon, Inc? It was also made into a documentary.

I've never had cancer and breast cancer specifically does not run in my family.

The book and subsequent movie are eye openers. Especially when the stage 4 women discuss how they're dying so the language that surrounds breast cancer (you just have to right, just be strong, etc) are so hurtful.

I do not participate in the October "buy pink crap" campaigns.

[Ms. Toad]

47. I haven't - but I'll look for it.

I'm still wrestling with the "survivor" language.

I was officially a "survivor" the day I was diagnosed, before I even started treatment for a disease that would kill me without treatment.

Now I've been graduated into the "survivor" treatment groups, since I'm no longer in active surgical, medical, or radiological treatment for cancer. That still doesn't sit well - because it feels as if it is saying the cancer occurred and is now done (in the way a rape has an ending point - and it feels right to describe myself as a survivor of an event that happened around 4 decades ago).

I prefer NED (no evidence of disease). Now that I have breast cancer, I don't really thing it will be an event in the past that I survived. That doesn't completely eliminate the impact of the language around breast cancer, but it addresses the reality that cancer will continue to be a present reality from the day you are diagnosed until you die (whether from cancer or something else).

[tammywammy]

49. It's available on Amazon Prime streaming.

The book was excellent too. It really opened my eyes to pink washing. I don't know how anyone has forgiven Susan G Komen after the bullshit they pulled with Planned Parenthood.

[aikoaiko]

36. Because "Save the Poop Chute" doesn't evoke like "Save the Ta-tas"

More seriously, new breast cancer cases are very high among all cancers. Survival rates are improving.
https://www.cancer.gov/types/common-cancers

And breast cancer disproportionately impacts women by a factor of 100. Women's breasts, for better or worse, are deeply tied to their identity.

[lagomorph777]

37. They've figured out how to milk it.

It's the perfect vicious circle. Make women scared about it, then cause more of it by irradiating them annually, then point to rising rates...

Meanwhile the money stream is incredible. Every product packaged in pink; Susan G Komen have managed to copyright a color.

Oncologists are the only physicians allowed to directly merchandise drugs - deadly drugs.

[irisblue]

38. Shirley Temple, Betty Ford, Happy Rockerfeller were all diagnosed in the mid to late 70s

This news had a huge impact on medicine & society. Public discussipns of breast & other cancers were rare till then.
Once upon a not too far back time, the treatment for breast cancer was a total radical mastectomy. From wikipedia.....Radical mastectomy is a surgical procedure involving the removal of breast, underlying chest muscle (including pectoralis major and pectoralis minor), and lymph nodes of the axilla as a treatment for breast cancer. To say it was HUGELY disfiguring is a total understatement. The loss of the affected side arms range of motion, the thinly muscle & skin covered rib cage, the very often awful & disfiguring lymphedema were well known & accepted side effects. If it was thought you had breast cancer then, you would go into surgery, NOT knowing if you would wake up with your breast intact.
This surgery was the standard treatment until the 70s. Surgical technology begain to change in the 70s as pathology & medical research led to new information(side effect of LBJs getting Medicare passed, research took way way off in the US). The rising Feminist Movement also led to a demand for fully informed consent BEFORE surgery was done, no more waking up w/o your breast, if you had not expressly agreed to it.

There are multiple layers to the reasons for Breast Cancer awareness.
A cynical reality in the mid late 90s was the knowledge by hospital chains, that women, in general in the US, controlled a familys'access to health care(& the insurance$ thereof), if you caught a womans attention to your facilities, you'd likely capture her family as well. The rise of the "worried well" women about breast cancer is well known to mammographers & radiologists.


Your experiences may vary, this is part of what I saw as a direct patient care provider during that time span.

[Initech]

40. Breast cancer has a great marketing arm.

[kstewart33]

41. Because one in eight women will get breast cancer.

It used to be one in eleven. Despite all of the money raised and the research, one in eight is a very scary statistic.

In 2017, it's estimated that 316,000 women will get breast cancer compared to 135,000 for colon cancer and 157,000 for lung cancer.

[crazycatlady]

42. There's a documentary called Pink Ribbons Inc

I watched it on Netflix, but not sure if it is still there. It explains a lot.

[tammywammy]

46. It's currently on Amazon Primer for streaming.

[LeftyMom]

43. Because it used to be taboo to discuss.

[pnwmom]

50. Because it is the most common serious cancer without a simple means of prevention.

Lung cancer is #2 in diagnosed cases, but 80-90% of cases could be prevented by not smoking.

https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/lung/basic_info/risk_factors.htm

[DFW]

52. My wife had invasive beast cancer. It didn't seem trivial at the time

She was then cancer-free until last year when she was diagnosed with a rare, but usually fatal form of uterine cancer which strikes only elderly women (she's not there yet), and slender women (she is). Since it was discovered very early and completely by accident, the oncologist said he thinks her 5 hour operation got it all. Biopsies of ovaries, stomach lining and 64 lymph nodes ALL came back negative, which the oncologist said he'd never seen before with her cancer, known as "the murderer" in her clinic.

So, I have her back again, for how long, no one knows. Maybe I'm next. Both my parents and all their siblings had cancer, so with me it's probably not a question of "if" but "when." I'm in no rush. She lost her brother at age 51 to brain cancer. I lost a cousin to it, and he was only 41. But I wouldn't trivialize ANY cancer. Go through it once, and you become wary. Go though it twice, and you've REALLY had enough. It leaves you with just enough energy to smack anyone who says that your cancer doesn't "rate" as much as someone else's.

The only cancer rock stars are those people who beat it. Anything else is just background noise.

[Turbineguy]

54. American men

have a thing about mammalian protuberances (as Frank Zappa called them).

[LeftishBrit]

56. It is the commonest form of cancer..

apart from highly curable forms of skin cancer.

I am sorry to hear about your friends.

At least in the UK, there are charities devoted especially to research and treatment of bowel cancer:


https://www.bowelcanceruk.org.uk/

https://www.beatingbowelcancer.org/

[titaniumsalute]

58. As a group who raises money for this cause...

we have discussed the same thing. Our audience (radio) is heavier female so our largest charity event is raising money for low income people to receive heavily reduced cost mammograms.

But have discussed that other cancers seem to take a big backseat. I think it is simply that so man people are impacted coupled with overall huge marketing.

[unc70]

59. Compare with coverage of prostate cancer

Prostate cancer affects roughly the same number of people as breast cancers. Roughly 12% of men will Get it and over 3 million US men are living with it and its after effects.

[mov6]

60. Breast Cancer Awareness is a big fraud

Because a big corrupt business cartel is built around breast cancer.

The breast cancer awareness movement is NOT about "supporting breast cancer causes" because they ignore, deny, or obfuscate the known breast cancer causes, it's about keeping this very profitable fraud going for as long as possible.

Few women question, or have questioned, what's really behind the war on cancer and the endless calls for breast cancer awareness. Most people would be much smarter and better informed if they had awareness of what this movement or the war on cancer do NOT raise awareness about. Celebrities, just like the general public, commonly promote the mainstream agenda, promoting narratives and slogans they've heard a million times ("mammograms save lives", get your colonoscopy, etc) without EVER actually scrutinizing these claims.

Knowing that the most prominent cancer charities (Komen, American Cancer Society, etc) are large self-serving businesses instead of "charities" or that these groups suppress critical information on cancer, such as the known causes of cancer (instead they talk about "risk factors" of cancer) or that many "breast cancer survivors" are victims of harm instead of receivers of benefit, or that they've been intentionally misleading the ignorant public with deceptive cancer survival statistics, or that government health bodies such as the NIH are merely a pawns for corporate medicine, etc is a good start to get to the real truth (read this well referenced scholarly article's afterword on the war on cancer at https://www.supplements-and-health.com/mammogram.html by a published author of the Orthomolecular Medicine News organization, and scroll down to the afterword that addresses the 'war on cancer').

The recognition that breast cancer awareness was started by these business interests is another piece of the real awareness about the pink ribbon cult and the traditional war on cancer. Or that the orthodox cancer business has been denouncing many good inexpensive alternative therapies (instead they sold you the lie that only their highly profitable/expensive, toxic conventional cancer treatments are relevant).

So, raising "awareness" about breast cancer or raising funds for the war on cancer have hardly any other function than to drive more unsuspecting people into getting more expensive and unnecessary tests (think mammography) and then, often, cancer treatments (chemo and radiation therapy).

The reality is that the war on cancer has been and still is, by and large, a complete failure (read Dr. Guy Faguet's 'War on cancer," Dr. Sam Epstein's work, or Clifton Leaf's book on this bogus 'war').

Since the war on cancer began orthodox medicine hasn't progressed in their basic highly profitable therapies: it still uses only highly toxic, deadly things like radiation, chemo, surgery, and drugs that have killed millions of people instead of the disease.

As long as the official "war on cancer" is a HUGE BUSINESS based on expensive TREATMENTS/INTERVENTIONS of a disease instead of its PREVENTION, logically, they will never find a cure for cancer. The upcoming moonshot-war on cancer inventions, too, will include industry-profitable gene therapies of cancer treatment. The lucrative game of the medical business is to endlessly "look for" a cure but not "find" a cure. Practically all resources in the phony 'war on cancer' are poured into treating cancer but almost none in the prevention of the disease. It's proof positive that big money and a total lack of ethics rule the official medical establishment.

At the same time, this same orthodox cancer cartel has been suppressing and squashing a number of very effective and beneficial alternative cancer approaches. You probably guessed why: effective, safe, inexpensive cancer therapies are cutting into the astronomical profits of the medical mafia's lucrative treatments. That longstanding decadent activity is part of the fraud of the war on cancer. Misguided celebrities, such as rock stars, are among the favorite ignorant advocators for the highly lucrative products of the corrupt cancer industry.

The history of the pink ribbon movement and the alleged war on cancer is fraught by corruption, propaganda, and the hoodwinking of the unsuspecting public. The entire war on cancer is a disinformation campaign. The real war is on the unsuspecting public. Does anyone really think it's a coincidence that double Nobel laureate Linus Pauling called the 'war on cancer' a fraud? If you look closer you'll come to the same conclusion. But...politics and self-serving interests of the conventional medical cartel, and their allied corporate media (the mainstream fake news media), keep the real truth far away from the public at large. Or people's own denial of the real truth.

[uppityperson]

61. So what causes breast cancer? What is the difference between a risk factor and cause?