Crazy,corny and unrealistic media articles on BC

I've read where some celebrities use a breast cancer diagnosis to try to jump start a stalling career. I'm cynical enough to believe it. Many get their stories out there without taking any time to reflect on what they experienced. To me, it seems they rush to get the publicity of it. Really, in this day of the Internet, do we really need celebrities to educate us?

I wrote a letter to the editor of my local newspaper and it was printed earlier this month. It makes similar statements that you've made in your post:

To the editor:

The ever-increasing flood of pink ribbon products and promotions during October, breast cancer awareness month, overshadows important information about the disease. Here are some facts. First, there is no cure for breast cancer. Breast cancer kills 40,000 Americans a year. That is 109 deaths a day.

Another fact: early detection does not equal cure. Having breasts removed, chemotherapy, radiation and hormone treatment is still no guarantee you are cured. Even when found in early stages and treated, 28% of all breast cancers progress to end-stage, metastatic breast cancer. Using 5-year survival rates is misleading because metastatic cancer can develop 10, 20 and 30 years or more after initial diagnosis. An additional 6% of women are diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer from the start because the disease can progress unpredictably. Ninety-eight percent of all metastatic breast cancer patients die from the disease. This side of breast cancer is mostly ignored during October in favor of positive survivor stories.

More facts: We do not know how to prevent breast cancer. Even women with healthy lifestyles and diet can and do get it. Mammograms do not prevent breast cancer. Awareness does not provide prevention or a cure.

Another reality is that many companies only sell pink ribbon products to boost profits, giving little or no donation to reputable breast cancer organizations. Consumers buying pink items to show support should know how much money from their purchase is donated and verify that the organization receiving the money distributes it in ways truly benefitting those with breast cancer. Anything less has little meaning.

The party atmosphere often surrounding pink ribbon promotions and campaigns conceals the harsh, devastating effects of breast cancer. We are not celebrating a holiday. This is not a sporting event where the side wearing the most team colors wins. Many women afflicted by breast cancer are troubled with how the pink marketing culture has distracted us from the goal of a cure, and as someone diagnosed with the disease in 2011, I feel the same way.

Move beyond the crazy antics, comical slogans and commercialized aspects of breast cancer awareness month. Press for more accurate breast cancer screenings, for money to be allocated for research for a cure and not simply awareness; for increased research dollars for metastatic breast cancer which is grossly underfunded, and for legislation mandating that 100% of cancer research results be published in cancer journals for all to benefit from the findings.

Awareness alone is insufficient. Finding a cure requires effective, intelligent action.

I hate when articles use the term “battled with breast cancer” or “she lost her battle...” Or worse, “it opened my eyes and was a blessing in disguise.” Cancer is not an gentlemanly adversary, and we don’t get to choose to spar with it under the Marquess of Queensbury Rules. It doesn’t fight fair--it maddeningly changes the rules arbitrarily and capriciously. Cancer is a vicious thug that drags you into an alley when you least expect it and mugs you. And talking about “losing” one’s “battle” with it is demeaning--it implies that we didn’t fight hard enough, or that WE failed when it was the treatment that failed, vanquished by that thug. And yes, I want to barf when some star who breezed through treatment (chaffeured from home to chemo suite to rad onc, recuperating in luxury with stylists on call) holds herself up as the exemplar of what the breast cancer experience can and should be. Yes, some of us get off easy--but we’re the lucky ones and have no business representing our stories as typical.

Nothing wrong with pink ribbons, so long as the experience isn’t sugar-coated and if the display of pink is coupled with contributions to research, treatment and assistance for breast cancer patients and their families. As to the term “cure?” Well, if your first diagnosis is in your 60s and you don’t get recurrence or metastases for another 20-30 years, that’s as close to a “cure” as anything gets. Per Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters, “it’s a shame we have to die, my dear--nobody gets out of here alive.” And as Warren Zevon sagely put it, “Life’ll Kill Ya.” Whether you die at 80-90 of breast cancer, a stroke, heart attack, COPD or congestive heart failure, you still made it to 80 or 90...and you will still be equally dead. (If you manage to figure out how NEVER to die, please enlighten us all, after you collect your Nobel).

Finally, I want to call a moratorium on articles that tell us we brought this on ourselves for: eating meat, not eating enough meat, not eating fish, eating the wrong kinds of fish, being sedentary, pushing ourselves too hard, having kids too late in life or not at all, bottle-feeding the kids we did have, drinking more than a couple of glasses of wine a week, drinking milk, using antiperspirant, wearing underwire bras, going braless, choosing to live in an environmentally hazardous neighborhood, not praying enough (or in the “wrong” belief system), yada yada yada... Fact is, we can’t choose our ethnicity, ancestors or relatives (or decide what diseases they had or will get), when we get our first periods or when we hit menopause. We can’t choose what gene mutations we did or didn’t inherit. And again, even if we manage to evade the Big C, our hearts, brains or lungs will choose to fail us instead.

Mrs. M., I read something that she said about a preventative diet and I was done. I went down the blame road in the first few months after my dx and then I realized, nope, shouldn't be doing that. Unbelievable.

Thank you so much Muriel and Div. What gets me is when people tell you that you just need to remove those breasts and then you will no longer have to worry about them. It's not the breasts which are worrying me, it's the mets. In a way I am privileged because, growing up, I knew a lady who had bc (1st diagnosed when she was in her 30's and I was 4, BRCA mutations). She had single mastectomy, radiation, chemo, then was ned for 1 year, then new primary in other breast, another year of treatment, ned for 1-2 years, then ovaries, treatment again, ned for couple of years, then mets started cropping up in one part of her body, then another, then another. She was still alive 17 years after the initial dx but there was no way she could be cured: even chopping her head off and putting it on a new body wouldn't have worked as she eventually developed brain mets. Thanks to her, I know what may be lying in store for me. I boil too when people talk about mastectomies as of simple operations, like pulling out a tooth.

That's why it frustrates me that these celebs rush to get their story out, rather than observe and research the issues of prevention and cause. If they tell the public "there is no cure" they would be seen as negative and perhaps radical. Women celebs aren't allowed to be either of those! It's about self promotion and getting those endorsement deals. One main reason I never cared for Joan is she always acts like she's the only one smart enough to decipher information and must break it down into understandable language for others to learn and has deemed that her mission in life.

So Joan spews out the same rhetoric we continue to read and hear thru media outlets. She chooses not to question, hey, why are 40,000 women in the U.S. alone still dying every year from mbc? Why do 28% of women with earlier stage bc progress to mbc even after aggressive treatment? Why don't the bigger bc fundraising organizations funnel more money into research? Why does mbc receive less that 7% of research funding?

If she or other celebs raised these questions, boom, the book deals and other potential lucrative offers to represent the carefully cultivated image of a breast cancer 'survivor' would be off the table. Can't bite the hand that feed you, huh? Just eat those veggies, girlies, before you go for yourmorning run.

The article is a piece of fluff accompanied by a picture perfect image of Sandra Lee. Really, do we need someone to say "you need your girlfriends". And what about those who don't have a significant other?

Muriel, it's interesting to hear how things are approached in other countries. That is a sad story about Jane McGrath.

And you are right, more funding for research for metastatic bc is needed

Hi Muriel:

I actually had never heard of her until she went public with her diagnosis. Anyway, the content from "Parade Magazine" is available on-line at parade.com, and there were actually two companion pieces. The first one is the one sbelizabeth is talking about, although both feature comments from Ms. Lee:

http://parade.com/429878/lhochwald/5-things-sandra...

http://parade.com/429884/lhochwald/breast-cancer-t...

BarredOwl

Sbelizabeth - "This public self-congratulation is smug and irritating, and the ignorance is deplorable." perfect, and Lunalin - "I'm nt fighting, just living til my next exam" reminded me of this letter to McSweeney's that I read today........about "battling" cancer.

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/an-open-letter-...