Elaine Marie Cooper Author

Historical Fiction That Grabs Your Heart and Feeds Your Soul

breast cancer

Cancer Support – Is it Breast-Obsessed?

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October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. I did my part by getting a colonoscopy.

Whaaat? That’s for colon cancer, right?

Right. And that is my point. There are other types of cancers that are more deadly than breast cancer. Yet the American Cancer Society (ACS) deems breast cancer as the body part most worthy of an entire month. In fact, it is the only type of cancer that gets 31 days for promotion and fundraising, specifically sponsored by the ACS. See their link here.

I became acutely aware of this apparent bias a couple of years ago when shuttling a friend to her radiation treatment appointment. Although my friend’s lung cancer appeared to be in remission, a tumor had been discovered in her brain. She was unable to drive herself to the appointment so I took her in my car and assisted her into the waiting area.

I had been through this scenario before with family, so I was prepared for the usual routine of waiting in semi-comfortable chairs. What I wasn’t prepared for was the décor: Numerous displays of headless mannequins wearing brightly decorated bras that were used as fundraising items to support the fight against breast cancer. On one table I noticed a painted, plaster-of-Paris type piece of art: Another colorful bra that, I suppose was meant to encourage those with breast cancer.

October—The month of Pink
October—The month of Pink

But my friend wasn’t there for breast cancer.

I kept my emotions in check as I approached the woman at the check-in counter. My friend with the brain tumor had already been led away to the radiation chamber and I used this opportunity to ask a few questions of the receptionist. Mainly, I wanted to know if ALL kinds of cancer were treated at this large cancer center.

“Oh, yes,” she said in a friendly yet professional manner. I then asked about the “bra” décor that covered every nook and cranny. Yes, these were for the breast cancer fundraiser. She looked quite pleased.

“But,” I calmly but earnestly asked her, “does this not make it seem like the ONLY cancer you treat here is breast cancer? Would this perhaps make others—victims of prostate, colon, brain cancer—feel like theirs was not as important?”

Pointing to a small plastic holder with 8 x 11 size papers in it, she assured me that there were groups that met to support each kind of cancer group. She seemed satisfied…but I was not.

“But my friend is here for brain cancer.” She basically brushed off my concerns.

And no wonder. Because in the last ten years, aside from an annual card in the mail to say the American Cancer Society was doing a fundraiser, the only obvious efforts to raise money to fight malignancies that I have seen are for cancer of the breast.

Most of us can name at least one (probably more) organizations that specifically gears its efforts to raise money for and, awareness of, breast cancer.  There are Facebook groups, community businesses efforts, and athletic events all geared towards fighting this particular form of malignancy.

As a woman, I am grateful that so many are concerned about that particular part of my anatomy. As a daughter who has lost her father to colon cancer, as a niece who has lost a beloved uncle to lung cancer, and—most painful of all—as a mother who has lost a daughter to brain cancer, I am frankly sick of this focus on the mammary glands.

This nation is breast-obsessed.

Let me share a few statistics, courtesy of the National Cancer Institute. They have estimates for the numbers of cases of each type of cancer expected to have occurred in 2014, along with the numbers of deaths that are expected. I have also listed the survival rate after 5 years:

                                 Diagnosed cases         Deaths expected          5-Year Survival

Breast                         232,670                      40,000                           89.2%

Colon and Rectal            136,830                    50,310                  64.7%

Lungs and Bronchi        224,210                 159,260                  16.8%

 

If you noticed the alarmingly high numbers of cases and subsequent deaths from lung cancer, don’t assume it’s because all the victims smoked. Although most cases of this disease are due to smoking, it is often second-hand smoke that leads to lung cancer. Asbestos as well. There is a test for finding early stage lung cancer, called a low-dose spiral CT scan. I’m sure it’s expensive. But then again, so are mammograms.

Colon cancer has more fatalities percentage wise compared to breast cancer yet it is one of the most preventable cancers when colonoscopies are utilized. These are quite expensive. So are mammograms.

Do I think that funds raised for research and support for breast cancer are a bad thing? Heavens, no. My mom had breast cancer (and survived it) and I’ve had friends with the same. I am grateful for the screenings and the drugs.

But in this month of October—the same month during which I saw my daughter die of brain cancer eleven years ago, and my father die of colon cancer 25 years ago—I say, let’s support ALL cancer research.

Cancer is an equal-opportunity attacker. It doesn’t care where in the body the alien cells begin to grow and take over—so why should we?

I guess some cancers are just not sexy enough to promote. But in truth, there is NOTHING sexy about cancer.

 

 

 

Wounded Cancer Warrior

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In the war against cancer, there are many engagements both frightening and painful. But when those you hope to be on your side attack you, the “friendly fire” can be the most devastating of all.

Such is the case with Lisa Bonchek Adams, a woman in New York suffering from Stage 4 cancer who has been using social media to discuss her personal fight against the disease. While Ms. Adams has written that she does not like the use of war-related phrases in describing cancer treatments, I have personally found the analogy to be fitting.

As anyone who has suffered from or knows someone who has cancer, the battle is fraught with multiple doctor visits, diagnostic scans, lab work, and, often, painful treatments that poison one’s body in an attempt to poison the cancer cells. Many of the treatments are improving, thanks to research. But most still leave a patient exhausted and quite ill.

Ms. Adams’s tweets are now being attacked in the mainstream media by none other than former Executive Editor of the New York Times and current columnist, Bill Keller. Mr. Keller became aware of this cancer patient via his wife, Emma Keller, who writes for The Guardian in the UK.  Now, Emma Keller is a cancer survivor herself. Her column about this cancer patient in the U.S. was pulled down after it was determined that Emma Keller had interviewed Ms. Adams by e-mail, without informing her that the quotes might be used in a public forum. Any journalist should know better.

But now Bill Keller has joined in the discussion, essentially telling the public that enough already, why doesn’t this Stage 4 cancer victim just stop all these treatments she is undergoing at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center? Why doesn’t she just give up, making some reference to the cost of extending her life? He seemed surprised in his editorial piece that Ms. Adams’ doctors would not reveal some of the expenses incurred by the treatments. Excuse me? Patient privacy?

After all, Mr. Keller argues in his column—and now we get to the heart of his argument—his father-in-law bravely gave up the fight and died with dignity.

So when it comes to cancer treatment, one size fits all? And when it comes to those who are deciding to fight further, even to the point of taking experimental treatments to aid in the cause of research to help others, that is no less dignified?

Mr. Keller did not seem to take into account circumstances. His father-in-law was 79 when he passed away. Does he realize that Ms. Adams is a much-younger mom with three children, one of whom was born with congenital abnormalities to his heart, spine, and hands? (You can read her blog at http://lisabadams.com/ )

Even worse, Mr. Keller implies that doctors in the U.S. are only beginning to understand that a person should be kept pain-free as they pass through the portal to eternity. Where have you been, Mr. Keller, in your knowledge of cancer fighting? My own daughter, who died of cancer ten years ago, stopped the treatments that her body could not tolerate anymore and was kept pain free until the end.

Mr. Keller was informed by a cancer research center that only 3% of adult cancer patients who are eligible for clinical trials accept this daunting mission. He seemed surprised. Was he pleased?

One would think so by this excerpt:

“In October 2012, I wrote about my father-in-law’s death from cancer in a British hospital. There, more routinely than in the United States, patients are offered the option of being unplugged from everything except pain killers and allowed to slip peacefully from life. His death seemed to me a humane and honorable alternative to the frantic medical trench warfare that often makes an expensive misery of death in America.

 Among doctors here, there is a growing appreciation of palliative care that favors the quality of the remaining life rather than endless ‘heroic measures’ that may or may not prolong life but assure the final days are clamorous, tense and painful. (And they often leave survivors bankrupt) What Britain and other countries know, and my country is learning, is that every cancer need not be Verdun, a war of attrition waged regardless of the cost or the casualties. It seemed to me, and still does, that there is something enviable about going gently. One intriguing lung cancer study even suggests that patients given early palliative care instead of the most aggressive chemotherapy not only have a better quality of life, they actually live a bit longer.”

 

I have to wonder if Emma Keller (Bill Keller’s wife) recovered from breast cancer as the result of someone else risking a new drug that later saved Emma? I am only speculating, of course.

Let me share a story. On a recent flight, I sat next to a chiropractor whose mother had taken the trial drug Herceptin when she had advanced breast cancer some twenty years ago. Now his mother is alive and well, thanks to that experimental drug that is now regularly given to breast cancer patients. I know that chiropractor’s family was grateful that she had continued the fight.

These are not easy decisions for any cancer patient. The unknown stares at you as you contemplate your next step. Do I continue taking these new drugs? Or do I stop?

One of my friends has a son with a brain tumor. Several years later, after trying one new chemotherapy after another, the tumor that threatened to shorten his young adult life long ago, has been kept at bay long enough to give him many treasured moments with his family.

My daughter, who has been deceased these ten years, once wrote in her diary about the importance of “moments,” long before she knew her life would end at the age of 24:

“There is beauty in each moment. There is the hand of God in each one. It may not always be obvious, but to a trained eye, it is visible. Look to the One Who gave me my moments and you, your moments, and everyone one of them will become as valuable as pure gold. After all, it will only be a matter of moments before this life is through and others are experiencing their moments. Then, I won’t have to worry about moments. It will be one long, glorious, eternal moment spent in the love of God.”

Apparently, Mr. Keller likes to play God in deciding the numbers of moments on earth that are important.

 

If you’d like to follow Lisa Bonchek Adams,’ tweets here is her Twitter handle:

@AdamsLisa

You can read the column by Bill Keller here.