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How to increase prostate cancer awareness & funding?
Prostate Cancer | Last Active: Dec 10 9:37am | Replies (95)Comment receiving replies
Here's a paper on Canadian research funding for site-specific cancers in 2015:
https://crdcn.ca/publication/discrepancies-between-canadian-cancer-research-funding-and-site-specific-cancer-burden/
Best funded: leukemia, prostate, and breast (51.3% of all cancer research funding combined)
Least funded: uterus, pancreas, and ovary (7.8% of all cancer research funding combined)
Worst funded proportional to cancer burdon: lung, uterus, and colorectal
Women would have a legitimate complaint over how seriously underfunded uterine and ovarian cancer research is.
Replies to "Here's a paper on Canadian research funding for site-specific cancers in 2015: https://crdcn.ca/publication/discrepancies-between-canadian-cancer-research-funding-and-site-specific-cancer-burden/ Best funded: leukemia,..."
@northoftheborder Interesting, is this per 100k or ? where did testicular cancer er come in at ? Thanks .
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@northoftheborder How much (and why) private and public funding for diseases and illnesses occurs is complicated.
(Referring to only those cancers you’ve mentioned), due to the highest number of diagnosed cases, breast and prostate cancers get the most attention. (Breast cancer funding/research has decades head start over prostate cancer.) As a result, mortality rates on both cancers are now some of the lowest. (Yet, both cancers are dwarfed by cardiovascular disease deaths.)
Uterine (cervical) cancer has a 2.5x-3.0x higher mortality rate than either breast or prostate cancer, but affects few annually (cases: 13,820; deaths: 4,360). (Uterine corpus cancer has an even lower mortality rate than cervical cancer, but again affects much fewer than breast or prostate cancers.)
Same with pancreatic cancer - it has the highest mortality rate of all cancers (78%), but affects few in comparison to breast and prostate cancers. (My older brother died of pancreatic cancer in October 2024; that’s when I started looking into these mortality rates.)
Ovarian cancer is an interesting one. It also has a high mortality rate (65% - 2nd highest mortality rate in the cancers you mentioned), but affects very few annually (cases: 19,680; deaths: 12,740).
However, there has been so much research done with ovarian cancer that there is a test for it - it’s called the CA125 test. It measures levels of the CA 125 protein, primarily used to help diagnose, monitor treatment, or check for recurrence in ovarian cancer. (Comparable to how a PSA test measures levels of the PSA protein, primarily used to “help diagnose, monitor treatment, or check for recurrence” in prostate cancer.)
But, just like with a PSA test where many things can cause PSA to rise, many things can cause a CA125 to rise so, the test isn’t offered as a standard test. That 65% mortality rate in ovarian cancer would be much (much) lower with early detection if women asked for the CA125 test at about 40y-45y old (just as PSA tests are recommended for men starting at about 45y).
How much and why private-sector and public sector funding for diseases and illnesses occurs is complicated. With limited dollars, the need - however that’s determined - will be the key driver.
(Data are from the American Cancer Society, 2024: https://acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.3322/caac.21820)