Source: National Post

On Sept. 30, thousands of people will participate in the Run for the Cure marathon. They will raise thousands of dollars for breast cancer research. The Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation website is a sea of pink and purple and shows many further upcoming events where people can get involved in fighting breast cancer: The Nite of Hope auction, garden parties, the Pink Ribbon Charity Ball. The viewer is overwhelmed by the sheer volume of the support.

It reminds me of an email I received a few years ago from a dear friend who asked me to pledge support for a breast cancer walkathon. Her personal website stated that “together, we can beat breast cancer.” There were some stats on the disease, plus a little thermometer measuring how her pledges were doing.

Seeing the pink ribbons raises many emotions in me. And, to be honest, one of them is anger.

Please don’t get me wrong. I have more than a passing interest in breast cancer. I lost a dear sister-in-law to breast cancer. I have friends who live with the illness. I consider myself a lucky breast cancer survivor.

So why am I upset? Simple. I’m jealous of all the attention paid to breast cancer when there are so many other cancers that could also benefit from public awareness.

All cancers should be a priority.

My breast cancer was caught by a screening mammogram. After a biopsy confirmed an invasive lobular carcinoma, I underwent a partial mastectomy and underarm surgery, called an axillary dissection. This was followed by weeks of radiation and years of hormone therapy. Fingers crossed, so far so good.

The mammogram probably saved my life as the cancer was caught early, before it had a chance to spread. Mammograms are free for all women over 50. Tamoxifen, the tablet that gave me a shield against the possibility of a recurrence, is also free.

Yet while I am deeply grateful for all that the public healthcare system did for me, I am also deeply bitter about what it did not do for my sister who died five years ago of throat cancer.

Her life was shortened by decades. I don’t know if there is screening for throat cancer, but there certainly is a lack of public awareness, and even awareness among health professionals. Reading her diary was heartbreaking. Doctors ignored her repeated complaints of symptoms for about eight months, prescribing antibiotics and allergy meds to shut her up. By the time she was diagnosed, the tumour was very large and her two choices were horrendous: either undergo a horrific operation, with a 20% chance of dying under the knife and 100% guarantee of poor quality of life afterward, or accept palliative care, and try to enjoy the next six months. I miss her very much.

Ironically, throat cancer has a similarly positive prognosis to breast cancer if caught early. Both have a five-year survival rate in the 80% to 90% range. But without screening and awareness programs, the outcome is deadly.

I am also deeply concerned that 50% of the population — men — don’t get the same high-profile treatment that women do when it comes to cancer. While I am happy to be alive, I also have a husband and sons. I love them dearly and I don’t want them to die a preventable death from the disease.

Take prostate cancer, for example. It is more prevalent than breast cancer. It is at least as deadly as breast cancer when not caught early. But while mammograms are free, prostate PSA tests are not. Further, this screening test is sometimes discouraged. Some health-care professionals caution men about “false positive” results. A friend, who is also a doctor, didn’t have the PSA tests. He was very angry when his prostate cancer was discovered. It was advanced by then and the treatment was lengthy and severely impacted his quality of life. He felt betrayed by his own profession.

And don’t get me started about lung cancer. It is far more deadly than most other cancers. Most people don’t live long after their diagnosis. But if it were caught early, they might have a better chance at treatment prolonging and improving the quality of — if not outright saving — their lives. Where are the public screening and awareness programs for lung cancer?

Sadly, my girlfriend — the one who sent me the email about beating breast cancer — died of lung cancer.

Public awareness is vital in battling any illness. Breast cancer has set the gold standard for this. Now can we get on with it and make other cancers an equal priority?

This news story was resourced by the Oral Cancer Foundation, and vetted for appropriateness and accuracy.