This issue about prostate cancer being a bigger killer than breast cancer

[StealthPolarBear]

It's a breast cancer success story, right?
I know prostate cancer is a huge issue but why has this good news story been hijacked and reported as a huge problem?

[BishBoshBashBop]

Are women not allowed a single moment in time just to focus on themselves? Must you always elbow your way in?

Wow. How insensitive can you get.

[ChaosNeverRains]

But why are breast cancers and testicular cancers being compared to one another at all? Why not against lung cancer, which is the biggest killer? Or must we engage in a battle of the sexes cancer dance off as penance for reducing the number of women dying to breast cancer? perhaps because, dare I say it, breast cancer has become glamorised, and by glamorised I don’t mean that it’s a good thing, but it’s a lot easier to do things to raise awareness i.e. women going for walks wearing bra’s on the outside of clothing, wearing pink ribbons, selling products to raise awareness, having a month devoted to it, coffee mornings etc.

How do you portray other cancers in a way that people will take notice? With lung cancer we’ve had the blackened lung pictures on cigarette packets but those only generated complaints. With male cancers you can’t expose any part of the male anatomy without there being other connotations. With brain cancers people become disabled, they have fits, they lose abilities and the death from brain cancer is debilitating and awful. There is no way to bring those to the attention of the public without having to turn to the darker sides of them. And so breast cancer will always have greater ability for awareness partly because of where it is i.e. on the outside whereas other cancers remain hidden iyswim.

[ChaosNeverRains]

And if a woman has a mastectomy to guard against the possibility of breast cancer she can talk about the impact on her because of how she felt it would affect her appearance.

It’s the only cancer which presents in such a way as to be a potentially physical cancer iyswim.

[StealthPolarBear]

Good point about the best way to raise awareness of other cancers. I'm not sure I even know the risk factors for lot of them. I do for breast and prostrate

[BishBoshBashBop]

Are people all aware of the bowel screening programme at 60?

Yes, but as a family with a history of various cancers I am probably aware of screening programmes than most.

[StealthPolarBear]

Stupid autocorrect

[iVampire]

‘But the only reason it's in the news today was because of improvements in breast cancer care.’

No the reason it’s in the news is because it’s having a major awareness raising drive.

I think it is seriously shit to denigrate what the prostate cancer charities are doing.

I prefer the stance I’d various breast cancer charities who, as far as I can tell having checked a few, have not uttered a word of criticism of the prostrate cancer charities

They have instead continued the conversation into what it means for breast cancer (especially as progress may have stalked and screening rates are down, according to one). But without a word to suggest that prostate cancer should not get the headlines every now and again.

I have neither of those cancers. But I do have cancer.

I think this is an appallingly goody thread

[StealthPolarBear]

Bish I knew about it but until today when I asked my mum I didn't know it was very national programme. And I should!!

[StealthPolarBear]

Glad you like it I vampire.
I had assumed that the stats that were out showed breast cancer deaths were down and that was the original press release. If that isn't actually the case then OK it is slightly different. But I'd assumed it was the media who had twisted th ings.

[StealthPolarBear]

Tbh I'm getting sick of being called goady.
I have acknowledged other points of view. I have remained civil. Other people do think I have a point, I've not just started the thread and run.
If anyone else has a problem please could they report and avoid personal attacks.

[ChaosNeverRains]

I know someone who has bowel cancer which has spread to their liver and lungs. She was 38 when diagnosed.

I knew someone else who had bowel cancer at 35, he survived.

I know someone else who has a brain tumour who is mid 30’s. She will be lucky to see next Christmas.

Someone else who has just been told they probably have a brain tumour which while potentially not cancerous still will have debilitating effects because of where it’s located.

Yes people talk about breast cancer. And people die of breast cancer. But there are many, many more cancers which warrant a mention as well, and today’s story was about prostate awareness, not about breast cancer good news. If a journalist has made it look like that they have got it wrong.

[iVampire]

‘I had assumed that the stats that were out showed breast cancer deaths were down and that was the original press release’

You were wrong. It was all from Prostate Cancer UK.

You’re basically pissing on one charity for not giving greater prominence to a condition unrelated to its entire purpose

[Gazelda]

The story was from Prostate they have not hijacked a 'breast cancer success' story. It's a real shame how this has turned into some sort of competition and begrudging any profile a cancer charity manages to get in the press.

[BackforGood]

Without a link to the particular story / article, can't really comment, but I agree with the principle, that the rate at which breast cancer is treated successfully has improved, and is improving is good and should be celebrated as such. Probably we should be looking at why detection and treatment of that particular sort of cancer has been so good over last 15 - 20 years but not so much all the other cancers. It isn't as simple as being about men / women either, or ovarian cancer wouldn't be such a killer would it ? Let alone all those other cancers that attack both sexes equally.
The progress in medical research terms is good, but it is never enough, when you have a diagnosis, or someone close to you has a diagnosis.
That's before we even get on to all the other terrible illnesses out there that get nowhere near the same publicity and funding (MS, MD, and thousands of debilitating, but less common ones).

[StealthPolarBear]

I'm so sorry to hear that. All cancer is shit. Great progress seems to be made in some but not others

[Elementtree]

Thanks chaos. That's a really interesting point about how the physicality of some cancers lend themselves better to marketing and fundraising around it.

I wish that had been clear in the news today, it would have made more sense. It just seemed like a weird comparison where the sex of the sufferer where the tenuous link.

[StealthPolarBear]

Actually I've just looked it up and the prompt was the release of ons cause of death stats. Prostate cancer have chosen to compare themselves to breast cancer

[CheeseandFickles]

Are women not allowed a single moment in time just to focus on themselves? Must you always elbow your way in?

Bloody men! How dare they die and take attention away from us?!

[StealthPolarBear]

Fewer women are dying. That is a good thing.

[lovemylover]

There should be a screening programme for prostate cancer ,my partner has had bowel cancer and survived,it was found just in time it was at stage 4,he has been having tests and biopsies for prostate cancer 8 months now, had 1 biopsy, then MRI, NOW ANOTHER BIOPSY FOR LYMPH NODES,
wHAT PEOPLE SHOULD UNDERSTAND IS THAT THERE ARE NOT ALWAYS SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS FOR PROSTATE CANCER, THE psa TEST ISNT VERY RELIABLE EITHER
[Sorry caps on by acci Somehing showed up on the MRO which is why he had to have a nuclear MRI too, back in hospital next week for yet another biopsy,
Men though are notorious for not getting checked over,
I am sorry for all of you with partners with it,i hope all turns out for the better

[StealthPolarBear]

I'm guessing there isn't an effective screening programme which is why one isn't run. Hopefully they will develop one very soon.

[CapnHaddock]

The piece I heard on Today was all about how prostate cancer had less exposure than breast cancer.

I agree that drawing comparisons is supremely unhelpful. But the fact is that it’s the Prostate cancer charity that’s doing it.

[StealthPolarBear]

Fair enough. I do think it's a bit crap they're choosing to 'piss over' (to use the charming term from a pp) success in another area. But obviously their aim is to quite rightly raise awareness in th e most effective way. The story though was the release of death stats.

[CountFosco]

It use to be said about prostate cancer that you didn't have to worry about it because something else would kill you first. The treatment had more unpleasant side effects than the disease itself (20 years since I worked on it but the treatment then resulted in losing the ability to have an erection).

If the percentages dying have been going down but the percentages dying of breast cancer have been going down faster this is not an issue surely? It's good news for both cancers.

But, as a PP said prostate cancer is a disease of old men whereas breast cancer is a disease that affects women of all children and destroys families in the way that the diseases of old age doen't. No-one on here writes about losing their father to prostate cancer as a child but we will all know families that have been affected by a young woman dying of breast cancer. The cancers are not equivalently awful and it is disingenuous to suggest it is. Testicular cancer does affect young men disproportionately and that is really the male equivalent to breast cancer, complete with awareness campaigns and fund raising appeals.

[woodpecker2]

Yes I heard it on the radio it was certainly phrased in a way that it's not fair how dare women stop dying first.