If only that were true, from a research grant perspective. But it’s not. Truth is that more research dollars are funneled into breast cancer research that affects the most breast cancer victims, regardless of the severity of those particular cancers. To put things into perspective, the following data was extrapolated from a blog article written by Dr. Oliver Bogler, Ph.D. of the National Cancer Institute at the time of publishing on 12-3-2012. While the chart is based on data that ranged as much as 10% in certain categories, a mid-point was used to show the relative correlation between the statistics of what kinds of breast cancers victims in the U.S. typically deal with.
While the breast cancers with the greatest frequency of occurrence typically receive the lion’s share of research grants and donations, it is the lesser occurring and even ‘rare’ cancers that typically have the worst prognosis. A study of the Cancer Research Funding over the last decade by Dr. Oliver Bogler, Ph.D. revealed that close to 95% of all cancer research grants and funding went to the research of the most frequent forms of breast cancer, not to most dangerous or difficult to treat.
Raising awareness of the need to invest in the research of these more obscure and rare breast cancers is paramount to providing equity of treatment and possible cures to all breast cancer victims. It’s not just the most affected group that need our assistance. It is all breast cancer victims, particularly those suffering with little known or rare breast cancer types. It’s high time we level breast cancer research for all breast cancer victims, and let’s wipe out breast cancer in ours or our children’s lifetimes for everyone.