Breast Cancer Advice Center

Breast cancer solution?

I am writing a paper on male and female breast cancer.We were told to write about a problem. It could have been about the type of food we have in our school and what could be done to solve that problem.. I actually decided to write about breast cancer. The problem is i have written a lot of things about the problem but i have no idea on what could be done to raise awarness or to solve the problem! so any ideas would be awesome! **sorry for the misspellings!** im kind of in a hurry! :) BUT HASNT THERE BEEN LIKE BILLIONS OF DOLLARS SPENT ON RESEARCH AND THERE IS STILL NO CURE??

Public Comments

1. hurray for you for doing this paper! I'm 48 and was diagnosed last year with breast cancer. luckily the mamogram picked it up early. I'll be fine, but dr's said the cells were very aggressive and without early detection I would have been in trouble in 3-4 years. My father in law died of breast cancer. He was diagnosed very late. he had a weeping lump on his chest, he thought it was something else so self treated with a white baby cream covered with padding. fat lot of good that did! currently the early detection is one key, and I heard on the news and from my doctor that less and less women are getting mamograms., they are bothersome, time consuming, hurt, bla bla bla.
   I was on a cruise this summer and every bathroom stall and every sink in this huge ship had a index card sized laminated sign that said something like "wash your hands thouroughly for 20 seconds after using the toilet and before eatiing" or something to that effect. the message was EVERYWHERE, including next to elevators. The more we see a message the more likely we are to respond to it. So leaving one month (october) to 'breast cancer awareness' isn't enough. get a national policy to put little signs in every womens room in every stall around the country. It could be a grass roots movement, stacks of little laminated signs left in places women could grab a few and put them in stalls at work, at restaurants etc. 'yearly mamograms work to save YOUR life. it saved mine schedule yours now with your health care professional' or something like that. educate and remind remind remind.
   I can't get those dopey hand washing signs out of my head and wash a LOT more than I used to!
   As for educating men, I just don't know. My father in law was a tough old nut who wouldn't go to doctor.. 'too busy''. well, it metastasized and he was dead within a year. so I don't know the answer for men!
   
   regarding your statement about billions of dollars being spent with no cure, that's not really true. they know there are 2 types, estrogen postitve and progestin positive (actually more than those 2 types) I had the 'estrogen positive' type, meaning my estrogen feeds the cancer and stripping me of my estrogen (with tamoxifen) greatly reduces the chance of recurrance. the research showed highest rates of NON RECURRANCE in my type of cancer was with lumpectomy, radiation and 5 years of tamoxifen. Research paid for this to be known many years ago. And I will live to raise my sons (who lost their daddy to pancreas cancer last year, 6 months before my diagnosis!)
2. money money and more money for research
3. Check out breastcancer.org, youngsurvival.org and komen.org. All 3 sites have a lot of resources for you!
4. Young women are greatly at risk for being mis-diagnosed. At age 34, I found my lump and told my doctor. She said she couldn't feel it and that I was too young and it was probably just a cyst. It took me 7 months to get my doctor to find the lump. We did 2 mamograms and 2 ultrasounds. (the last untrasound found it) By then, the cancer had already started traveling into my lymph nodes. Luckily I got them to find it in time and I'm fine now. Had the doctor listened to me, it may not have gotten that far.
   
   While mamograms are still the best for detection, they weren't able to see the lump. Young women have dense breast tissue and mamograms don't always work.
   
   I think we need to teach young women to get to know their breasts early in life. The idea being, to know the lumps and bumps that are there....so that they notice when a new one shows up. That's how I found mine. When I was 12, my doctor said: "get to know your breasts". (I thank him every day for that bit of information)
   
   And young women need to be assertive. I could have just said "ok" when my doctor told me it was nothing. Instead I bugged everyone until my lump was found, tested and removed. I probably wouldn't be writing to you today if I hadn't been annoyingly persistent.
   
   Also, I feel that the medical field needs to be more aware. They need to listen to their patients.... young and old. We know our bodies best. They need to look into the findings of lumps and rule out the possibility of cancer. Not simply dismiss it because of age.
   
   Breast cancer awareness should be all year long. I like the idea of "a national policy to put little signs in every womens room in every stall around the country". If that's what it takes, let's do it.
   
   Cancer doesn't ever stop occurring and evolving. Why should we ever stop being advocates, spreading awareness, and promoting research for a cure.
   
   Contact the Young Survival Coalition at: youngsurvival.org. They'll have a LOT of information and ideas for you.
   
   Regarding your statement about billions of dollars being spent with no cure. I was diagnosed in October of 2000. While there may not be a cure, a LOT has been accomplished since then. There are medicines, procedures, and therapies now that weren't available then. And that was only 7 years ago! We've come a long way and the progress is speeding up.
   
   Good luck with your report! I'm interested in seeing how it turns out. Perhaps you can post it here so we can see the results. =)