Why should I care about breast cancer?








(NC) -- Breast cancer is a hot topic – the kind that you hear and read about in the news all the time. The disease that affects mostly women has grown into a cause that people, men or women, get behind. So why all the focus and energy you ask? Here's our answer to that.

You will likely be touched by breast cancer in your lifetime

A recent Canadian Cancer Society poll, conducted by Environics Research Group, found that close to 75% of Ontario women knows someone personally who's had or has breast cancer. When you factor in that breast cancer remains the most commonly diagnosed cancer and the second leading cause of cancer deaths among Canadian women, it's hard to look the other way. What's more, in Ontario, an estimated 9,300 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013 alone.

More needs to be done to fight breast cancer

While we know that early detection and better treatments improve a woman's chances of surviving breast cancer, there is a need for more women to getscreened and more funds to invest in research that will result in more effective treatment.

Nearly 40% of Ontario women aged 50-69 aren't getting mammograms regularly and according to our recent poll, nearly half of Ontario women don't know that getting a mammogram is the best way to check for breast cancer.

Last year alone, the Society invested $3.6 million in breast cancer research across Canada, examining new ways to prevent, treat and manage breast cancer. Yet, this is just a fraction of the research that could be done.

The Society receives many research proposals that are approved for funding by expert review panels each and every year, but on average we are able to fund less than 25% of these projects, and potentially life-saving research is not funded.

“It can take years to test therapies to see if they are effective in preventing or treating cancer. So researchers, like me, rely on funding from the Canadian Cancer Society to ensure that we are advancing the science in breast cancer.”

Dr Angela Cheung, Society-funded breast cancer researcher and clinician

You can save lives

Start by taking care of yourself. If you're a woman aged 50-69, we recommend that you get a mammogram every 2 years. Mammograms save lives by detecting breast cancer early when it's most treatable.

Don't stop there. Be part of a movement of women who are reaching out and taking care of one another. Join the Canadian Cancer Society's Women to Women campaign and become an ambassador to help spread the message to other women that mammograms save lives. Visit cancer.ca/womentowomen to register now.

Lastly, you can keep the momentum alive and donate to advance breast cancer research. Visit cancer.ca/womentowomen to find a Women to Women ambassador you'd like to support.

On average, the Canadian Cancer Society is able to fund less than 25% of recommended research grants due to lack of funds



Comments

There are 0 comments on this post

Leave A Comment