I no longer remember who said this in my presence, but one of my early contacts in the cancer support circles said that if you have to get cancer, it’s a good idea to get a cancer that has parades. That remark was made mostly in jest, of course, and that’s how I took it as well, though sometimes I have wondered whether there is more to that than I would like to admit.
Uterine cancer doesn’t have parades, or walks, or much at all in terms of public awareness campaigns, let alone targeted fundraising. It barely has its own color ribbon (peach, if you were wondering) and it has to share a month with other gynecological cancers. This is so even though uterine cancers—predominantly endometrial adenocarcinoma but other types as well—are actually the most common of the gynecological cancers in the U.S., given the important intervention that Pap smears have offered in the prevention of cervical cancer. (I must observe that cervical cancer remains a scourge worldwide, and that the rates of cervical cancer among American women of color are much higher than they are for white American women.) The CDC reports that in 2009, 44,192 women were diagnosed with uterine cancer, while 7,713 women died from it.
These numbers, though significant for those of us who are dealing with it, are small in comparison to the numbers of women who are dealing with breast cancer. Again from the CDC: 211,731 women were diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009, and 40,676 women died from it that year. Apart from skin cancers, it is the most common cancer afflicting American women.
From a utilitarian point of view, then, it makes perfect sense to have such an intense focus on breast cancer. However, it is not at all clear that the consequences of this focus, in the form of massive fundraising campaigns, especially related to private, corporate sponsorship, are producing the results that people are counting on and hoping for. Billions of dollars are raised and spent every year on cancer research, with a large percentage of that earmarked for breast cancer alone. Still, incidence rates of many cancers have not fallen as dramatically as expected (with the exception of lung and colorectal cancer, I understand), and the survival rates of some cancers in recent years, including some kinds of uterine cancer, have worsened. Breast cancer survival rates, especially for metastatic disease, are not improving as much as had been expected. Furthermore, the disparities between survival rates for white women and African-American women with breast cancer are worsening, not improving. Let me make this point more strongly, thanks to the CDC link that Avila provided in her comment below: "Black women have the highest death rates of all racial and ethnic groups and are 40% more likely to die of breast cancer than white women." (emphasis added)
I am not familiar enough with the critical literature on uterine cancer (as limited as it is), let alone with that on breast cancer, to say much at all about the implications of the current status quo. In an oversimplification, I will describe cancer research in general as being a hodge-podge of public and private research organizations operating fairly independently without much oversight or cooperation; not much money or attention is given to prevention. If I am misrepresenting the situation, I would welcome correction as well as suggestions for places to check out for more information.
At this point, in a figure I assume that is familiar to most of us, 50% of American men and 33% of American women will have some kind of cancer in our lifetime. We may be a small but mighty group here on DKos, but there is no question that this is a public health issue of major consequence. My still somewhat-unformed questions for you this evening are these: Where do you think the money raised for cancer research should go? To whom, and for what purposes? If you have any idea about what’s happening in relation to research on your particular cancer, do you think that it’s well-focused? Do you think that it will help you personally, or have some recent developments already done so? What are your thoughts about environmental factors, broadly defined, and the social and political steps that should be taken to minimize them? Any other questions that you’d like to have addressed, please feel free to take them on.
Monday Night Cancer Club is a Daily Kos group focused on dealing with cancer, primarily for cancer survivors and caregivers, though clinicians, researchers, and others with a special interest are also welcome. Volunteer diarists post Monday evenings between 7-8 PM ET on topics related to living with cancer, which is very broadly defined to include physical, spiritual, emotional and cognitive aspects. Mindful of the controversies endemic to cancer prevention and treatment, we ask that both diarists and commenters keep an open mind regarding strategies for surviving cancer, whether based in traditional, Eastern, Western, allopathic or other medical practices. This is a club no one wants to join, in truth, and compassion will help us make it through the challenge together.
EDITED at 9:30 ET to add CDC reference links and a little more detail regarding cancer rates.