I need to correct something I said early about the
National Breast Cancer Awareness Month or the pink month.
I said the organizer is not forthcoming and does not tell readers who
sponsor the campaign. I was wrong! The organizer actually discloses a list of
the sponsors in detail.
But I believe I was still
right in that the campaign does not mean to encourage women to prevent breast
cancer.
Rather it means to have women to
receive screening and early detection, which are good, but not the women's best
interest.
The first on the list of sponsors is the American cancer
Society or ACS, the richest not-for-profit organization in the world as some
critics call.
Sponsors also include
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists representing 51,000
physicians, American College of Radiology representing 32,000 radiologists,
American Society of Clinical Oncology, representing 25,000 cancer physicians,
and AstraZeneca Healthcare Foundation organized by the drug maker of Arimidex
and Tamoxifen.
Some other major medical
associations and government agencies are also listed as sponsors for the
national Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
The campaign organizer seems to act as a service provider
to help patients with information on breast cancer, its diagnosis and treatment
including early detection and mammograms/screening. There is lots of
information on its website for that effort.
But there is nothing about prevention meant to stop the malignancy from developing
in the first place, which is understandable. If there is no breast cancer or
the incidence is significantly reduced by some effective prevention measures,
the cancer business would see a huge dip in revenue.
I agree that this campaign gives breast cancer survivors
some comfort. They would feel that many people and organizations stand behind
them and help them fight the disease that could take their life at any
minute.
In a sense, many patients
benefit from this breast cancer awareness campaign.
But it seems to me that the industry and the government do
not seem interested much in research to find out how to prevent the disease in
the first place, which unfortunately could disservice the industry.
The best interest for the industry could be to
find some treatment that can sustain the patients’ lives, but not cure the
disease.
Breast cancer is expected to be diagnosed in one in every
8 women in their lifetime in the United States. It is up to women how to act to
deal with the risk.
They can wait to get
the disease and then resort to doctors and hospitals for treatments that are no
cure for the disease or they can be proactive and do something to prevent the
disease from developing in the first place.
There are many things women can do reduce the risk of breast cancer that vitamizes 182,000 women and kill 40,000 each year in the U.S.
But the most important thing to remember is
that no one should wait for her doctors or the government to give her the
answers regarding the prevention of breast cancer.
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