In October 2006, BCA launched Answers Wanted, a new public education campaign focusing on crucial questions about breast cancer that remain unanswered, despite more than 20 years of breast cancer awareness and billions of dollars spent in research. In its first year, the multiyear campaign will address the need to know which breast cancers will metastasize and become life threatening and which will not.
BCA conducted a national poll to find out what people know about breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. Women and men across the United States were asked to respond “true” or “false” to the following statements: (a) Breast cancer that stays restricted to your breast won’t be fatal; (b) At the time of diagnosis, a doctor can determine with certainty whether or not your breast cancer will be life threatening; (c) All forms of breast cancer require surgery plus chemotherapy or radiation; and (d) Some women receive more treatment than is necessary to treat their breast cancer.
Key findings from the poll include:
Despite the billions of dollars invested in breast cancer research, efforts have so far failed to produce answers to fundamental questions that confront patients at the moment of diagnosis. We need research focused on finding answers that would allow doctors to predict the spread of breast cancer, determine whether it will become life threatening, and decide the best course of treatment for each woman.
This October, for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, BCA invites the public to get informed and to join them in moving beyond “awareness” to action. BCA is calling on U.S. Senate and House subcommittees on health to prioritize a plan for future breast cancer research that will give doctors the tools they need to determine upon diagnosis if breast cancer will spread.
BCA encourages people who care about this disease to get informed by taking an online quiz, spreading the word to their friends, and e-mailing Congress.
The unknown of whether a woman’s breast cancer will spread leads to over-treating some patients, despite the grueling physical, emotional, and financial toll that treatment takes on them. There are essentially three groups of breast cancer patients:
The problem in treating women with breast cancer lies with the inability to distinguish which woman falls into which group. As a result, most women are presented with the full range of treatment, so many undergo treatments they may not need.
Only more focused research will allow doctors to determine whether breast cancer will spread, whether it will become life threatening, and what the best course of treatment is for each woman. We need and deserve these answers.
© 2010, Breast Cancer Action
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