Re: Equality of life expectancy?

> Ten times the amount? Not in the US.
>>>From the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs.
> http://cdmrp.army.mil/
>
> Approximately 39,800 women and 400 men are projected to die from
> breast
> cancer this year.
> Prostate, approximately 30,350 will die from the disease
>
> Congressional Appropriations
> BCRP FY04 congressional appropriation of $150M
> Congress appropriated $85M for the FY04 PCRP
>
> Breast cancer will kill approx 40,200 people, $150M = $3,731 per
> death
> Prostate cancer will kill approx 30,350 men, $85M = $2,800 per death
>
> While it's not equal, as it should be, it's no where
> near TEN times the amount.

This is just state funding! It is almost equal because lots of people
look at government's hands and there is no way government would get
away with gross injustice in this area. The 10-times figure only
emerges when you count money flowing in from all other sources:
charities, corporate sponsors, and how pharmaceutical companies
allocate their own research money. Here discrimination is possible
because there is no single guilty party. Each charity, sponsor or
pharmaceutical company can say, "hey, we just happen to focus on
breast cancer and others could focus on prostate cancer", but in the
end almost *all* of them collect, sponsor, or research breast cancer
and not prostate cancer because doing things "for women" yields much
greater PR benefits.

> Breast cancer gets more money in the end because more people
> donate, time and money. Why aren't men donating their time
> and/or money to prostate cancer?

Let's make an experiment. Take a three hour walk around the town and
count all pink ribbons and all blue ribbons on public service ads and
on product boxes in shops. See? An average person immersed in public
communication space receives literally several hundred times more
signals that assert the value of women's health, or relying on it
being an established value, than signals that assert the value of
men's health. How does the general public even get the IDEA that
donating to men's health is a good thing ethically, when women's
health is presented to them as two orders of magnitude more valuable?
I can donate to prostate cancer, you can, all soc.men can, but will it
change the big picture? If Gilette organizes a charity rally like all
those breast cancer marches that AVON does, how many men will attend
except sufferers and their families? Donating is simply not the way at
this stage of affairs. We must focus on lobbying the media to stop
presenting women's health as virtually infinitely more valuable than
men's health, and we must seek legal ways (or push a BILL, no less!)
to actually ORDER companies to promote men's health equally. When the
*general public* is convinced that men's health is as valuable as
women's health, the charity and sponsors' money for prostate cancer
will start flowing in.

> More men die from lung cancer than prostate and there is no
> where near the proportional research, funding or discussion
> (lung compared to prostate).

This is a very extraordinary claim that lung cancer receives less
attention or funding than prostate cancer despite much greater death
toll. I would say that lung cancer gets your attention every other
time you read a warning printed on a cigarette pack (the other time it
is about heart diseases). At least in some countries it also receives
your funding when you buy cigarettes. Therefore I will consider your
extraordinary claim a red herring unless you can provide extraordinary
evidence to support it.

Szczepan Holyszewski


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Delayed Treatments for Prostate Cancer
    ... "Incidence of Initial Local Therapy Among Men With Lower-Risk Prostate ... Cancer in the United States "? ... It was a retrospective review of thousands of patients in the SEER database. ... Treatment may result in morbidity. ...
    (talk.politics.medicine)
  • Re: Medical Research-Evidence
    ... "Radical Prostatectomy versus Watchful Waiting in Early Prostate ... The only issue is whether a treatment works. ... differences in cancer survival rates over very long periods of time may be ... advantage for surgery vs. watchful waiting. ...
    (talk.politics.medicine)
  • Flaxseed Stunts The Growth Of Prostate Tumors
    ... Flaxseed Stunts The Growth Of Prostate Tumors ... prostate tumor growth, according to a study led by Duke University Medical ... surgery for the treatment of prostate cancer. ...
    (sci.med.nutrition)
  • Re: Medical Research-Evidence
    ... "Radical Prostatectomy versus Watchful Waiting in Early Prostate ... The risk of death was not seen at 6 years, ... differences must be evaluated carefully even if statistically significant. ... prostate cancer. ...
    (talk.politics.medicine)
  • Re: Medical Research-Evidence
    ... "Radical Prostatectomy versus Watchful Waiting in Early Prostate ... mortality, overall mortality, and the risks of metastasis and local ... that in the face of diagnosed prostate cancer, ... crippling symptoms of metastatic disease beyond cure is of major importance. ...
    (talk.politics.medicine)