Breast Cancer Advice Center | Inflammatory Breast Cancer Knowledge Base

Is there enough "awareness" for cancer?

Did you know about the existance of Inflammatory Breast Cancer? I just heard about this the other day. To find out more go to: http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-H8.9bMwlcqiN0nuoACtuTVFGa_2xE8U-?cq=1&p=180#comments. Shouldn't there be more information? If this is so silent then maybe people should be more vociferous about it? I do agree. There are so many other kinds of cancer and there should be more awareness on cancer in general and not just breast cancer. You've gotta watch this video, though. It is amazing! I didn't even know this stuff existed!

Public Comments

I think what bothers me is that while there's so much focus on breast cancer, hardly any focus gets put onto others types of cancer...with the exception of maybe leukemia. I am glad that breat cancer has a lot of focus and attention, but it's certainly not the only type of cancer. And even though there is so much focus on breast cancer, all the focus goes on women even though men can and do get breast cancer as well (even though the statistics are much lower). So to answer your first question, no I don't think there's nearly enough awareness on cancer.
How is that AWARENESS ?

The only way you know you have it is IF and (not necessarily) when you get pain or notice a change. Most changes are pretty obvious.
The changes on that vid might not be as extreme as getting a tumour (feeling a lump)
but are changes none the less and most women would be suspiscious.
It's the same with any cancer. If it's somewhere you can't feel a lump that's just unlucky..
Knowing that there are cancers with little to no symptoms isn't going to help, that isn't awarenes. WE ALREADY KNOW THAT.
You could get blurry vision, balance problems etc
Also I (and others) wouldn't get a mammogram anyway, MRI all way.

It's a shame for women who get them and think that means the all clear. But I bet they don't even know that each time they get one they are increasing their chance of cancer
because of the radioactivity of the Xray being used? That's where people really need to be informed.
As for awareness about the disease/type of cancer. It's the doctors and researchers who do that. I agree they should know more.
The method of detecting them needs to be changed. Seems quite simple.
It's sort of like any condition. It becomes important enough to spread the word once it affects you personally. There are so many conditions out there you can't expect the doctors and general public to know all about everyone.
But insect bites.. wait 6 months? I don't think anyone would do that.
Procrastinator, we know about detection and such...we're talking about a public awareness of cancer. In other words, actually discussion the disease. People talk about breast cancer, but you rarely hear anything about what's going on with other cancers and their research.
And no, we're not expecting people to know every last disease. But some of us are sick and tired of one cancer being the "most important" one while the others are just overlooked.
Breast cancer doesn't effect all women, but did you know that any man who becomes elderly is basically guaranteed to get prostate cancer? Where are THOSE discussions?!
It saddens me that even the American Cancer Society will have all these events focused on breast cancer, but all the other types get is the Relay for Life...which is a great event, but the problem is that they're all lumped for one *night* while breast cancer even gets its own *month*!!
People have a higher chance of getting cancer than they do most other diseases....so yes, the general public SHOULD familiarize themselves with diseases that could very well come upon them.
Cancer gets far more attention than heart disease which is the #1 killer in the United States.
It depends on the type of cancer. Breast cancer info seems to be all over the place, but there is lots of silence about other forms of cancer.

There are also so many urban legends about cancer, like breast cancer only being a womans disease and not something that straight men can get, or that cancer surgery causes cancer to spread and is the leading cause of cancer deaths. There are urban legends about what causes cancer as well.
breast cancer gets tons of awareness compared to other types of cancer . we need more awareness for other cancers so we can have more research and one day hopefully a cure
Cancer gets a lot of publicity. Publicity isn't the same thing as awareness.

Sure, there are pink ribbons all over the place, but what are they telling you? To "Race/Shop for the Cure." That's not awareness; that's fundraising. Most of those pink ribbons are just THERE, asking you to buy the product so that a "portion" of it can be donated to cancer research. Sure, if people want to donate, that's fine. But they're not learning anything about the disease when they buy the product.

Awareness is actually DISCUSSING the disease. Most people have no idea how cancer even happens... they think that tumors just "come out of nowhere;" they have no idea that their body actually creates the tumor. There are so many misconceptions about cancer... just look at some of the questions on this board!

People think that just because you have cancer, your hair falls out. They think it's contagious. They think that people are exempt until they reach a certain age. None of these are true... but with all of this talk about cancer all over the news, shouldn't people be more well-informed? Or do they just not listen? If they don't listen now... what's going to make them start?

That, and no one teaches true prevention... other than "stay out of the sunlight." There are a lot of things you can do to help your body become less susceptible to cancer, and one of those things is actually getting a small amount of sunlight a day. (Sunlight produces Vitamin D, which is necessary for the immune system to function).

Our basic approach in the United States is "wait until people get cancer, then treat it." Cancer is a terrible thing, but it's also big, big business. I know people who have spent a quarter of a million dollars on cancer treatment. If we taught true prevention, and it actually worked, the cancer rates would plummet, but so would the cancer treatment facilities' profits.

Awareness is empowerment. I don't think this country wants us to be empowered...