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Why does prostate cancer only get 2-5% of funding breast cancer gets?
Prostate Cancer | Last Active: Oct 30 10:24am | Replies (20)Comment receiving replies
Sorry @vancouverislandhiker, but I think you've got really inaccurate numbers (at least when I look at the USA). On average, breast cancer kills more people in the USA each year than prostate cancer (by 20%). Further, looking at the National Cancer Institue funding stats Colleen posted on her first link it appears fairly constant that prostate cancer research funding is about 50% that of breast cancer research funding. However, further inspection reveals that the total funding for ovarian and uterine cancer deaths (solely female afflictions) is about 50% of prostate cancer research even though total ovarian and uterine cancer deaths are about 75% of male deaths from prostate cancer. So I don't see a gross imbalance here (except maybe for uterine cancer which has very little funding at all compared to the number of women it kills each year). Rather I suspect the funding allocation is probably a complicated topic dependent on many factors.
Here's the USA cancer numbers: https://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/common.html
Replies to "Sorry @vancouverislandhiker, but I think you've got really inaccurate numbers (at least when I look at..."
here is some more recent stats from our Cancer Clinics across Canada . I have not researched their raw data or how they came upon their data but these of the numbers they gave me.Here are the estimated mortality rates per 100,000 people in Canada for the cancers :
Breast Cancer: Approximately 22.4 deaths per 100,000 All people
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Colon Cancer: Approximately 43.1 deaths per 100,000 people
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Prostate Cancer: Approximately 22.7 deaths per 100,000 men
Startling to see Colon Cancer so high . Last night, I was watching the World Series and some other sports. There were three commercials about cancer. Two about breast, cancer awareness, and one about ovarian cancer awareness. Nothing on prostate cancer. Probably 80% of the viewers were men. Go figure. I don't think these aforementioned commercials are that out of place... however I don't expose myself to too much TV nor the commercials. God bless Sir ... stay healthy.
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Thanks for yoru comments here . I appreciate yoru interest ! Looking into the UK 9 which keeps some good statistics... ) Some clarity can be found by examining the mortality figures stratified by age. The death rate from prostate cancer in men older than 80 years of age is 601 per 100K, whereas the breast cancer mortality rate for women aged 80 or older is 216 per 100K. Other age strata's and ethnic strata's bare even more interesting stats .
It's not easy statistical work . But looking at the UK again one can glean a "trend line" . Let's just look at number of deaths .In the year 2000, there were 724K men and 1,485,600 women aged 80 or over. Women have historically had a higher life expectancy, so this is not surprising. However, some of this shortfall may be a legacy of War. For a man to have been >80 in 2000 he would have been born before 1920 and eligible to be in the 2nd World War. Fast-forward to 2015 and the difference between men and women older than 80 is much narrower- its a different world in 2015 ; the number of women >80 increased by +19%, compared with+66% in men. Thats right 66% higher over 15 years ! This increase in elderly population for both sexes translates to 663 extra breast cancer deaths but 3000 extra prostate cancer deaths, contributing to the increasing crude number of prostate cancer deaths. Now did Prostate cancer get 66% more funding from the already underfunded amount? I doubt that very much ! God Bless ! Stay healthy !