Breast cancer is extremely common among women in the United States. “About 1 in 8 U.S. woman (about 12%) will develop invasive breast cancer over the course of her lifetime” (U.S. Breast Cancer Statistics). In just 2015 alone, there is expected to be 231,840 new cases of invasive breast cancer and about 60,290 cases of non-invasive breast cancer (U.S. Breast Cancer Statistics). Sadly, for women in the U.S., breast cancer is the most common and proves to have the highest death rates than any other cancer, besides lung cancer however. The risk doubles if the woman has a first-degree relative such as a mother or sister who has been diagnosed (U.S. Breast Cancer Statistics). Terrifyingly, about 85% of breast cancer occur in women who have no family history of breast cancer (U.S. Breast Cancer Statistics). The older the woman, the more significant the risk (U.S. Breast Cancer Statistics). With all these scary statistics, it can be concluded that breast cancer in the United States is quite common. With that being such, there are plenty of strengths and weaknesses of the mainstream breast cancer culture.

In the editorial called, “Breast cancer gets the hard sell” by The Lancet, an interesting way to fund for the cause is pointed out. Here, it is stated that the House of Representatives has passed a bill allowing the US Post Office to add a surcharge of eight cents to a regular 32-cent stamp, leaving the access to the research for breast cancer. The Senate has passed a similar bill but one in which only adds an extra charge of one cent per stamp (Breast Cancer Gets the Hard Sell). Both bills will need to be reviewed by legislators however it is estimated to generate about $60 million per year if just 10% were bought at the higher rate (Breast Cancer Gets the Hard Sell). This seems like a great cause however many would argue that this leaves out all other causes which is also pointed out in this editorial. Also, this only funds research, it leaves leaves out funding towards the improvement of standards of care for women with this cancer (Breast Cancer Gets the Hard Sell). This provides a good point: maybe people would be more willing to pay the higher stamp price if they knew their money would be going towards making the breast cancer patients more comfortable knowing all the miserable side-effects treatment causes (Breast Cancer Gets the Hard Sell). I know I would be more encouraged to pay the higher price stamp knowing the money would be going towards that instead of unspecified research projects. The Lancet also states that assuming large sums of money for research will ultimately cure the cancer is pretty unreasonable. It would be wonderful if it worked, but history of breast cancer culture has not proven success as there is still not yet a cure. The stand this editorial takes is clear as it mentions there is definitely room for improvement when it comes to the way we fund medical research as a voluntary tax for a single cancer does not seem to cut it (Breast Cancer Gets the Hard Sell).

Barbara Ley’s publication, “From Pink to Green” challenges the mainstream breast cancer culture we are familiar with. She challenges the pink ribbon symbolism awareness attempt by focusing on the environmental links (Ley, 2009).

Although the mainstream breast cancer seems to do a lot of positive things for this culture such as raising large sums of money for awareness, provide multiple funding opportunities and provide access for support, both articles stated in this post challenge the focus and efficiency. Ley says that the cancer industry still ignores the link between epidemic cancer rates and the contamination of air, food and water (Ley, 2009).

Work Cited:

“U.S. Breast Cancer Statistics.” Breastcancer.org, 11 May 2015. Web. 18 Aug. 2015.

“Breast Cancer Gets the Hard Sell.” Editorial. Lancet 9 Aug. 1997: n. pag. Print.

Ley, Barbara L. From Pink to Green: Disease Prevention and the Environmental Breast Cancer Movement. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP, 2009. N. pag. Print.