Anti male bias in battle for Cancer money
A man diagnosed with prostate cancer has only one- quarter of the cash spent on research into his disease compared to the amount devoted to a woman’s breast cancer. The wide discrepancy shows the scale of the discrimination against men. The two diseases kill similar numbers.
According to the most recent available figures, total research spending by the government and the leading charity in the field comes to £36.8m a year for breast cancer against £9.7m for prostate cancer. In addition, the NHS spends £72m annually on the national breast screening programme but there is no such scheme for prostate cancer.
The government spends £4.2m a year on prostate cancer research. While it does not disclose how much is spent every year on breast cancer, the figure is estimated to be at least £12m.
High levels of funding for breast cancer research over the past decade have led to dramatic rises in survival rates. Some 64% of women diagnosed with the disease today are likely to live for at least 20 years.
Patient groups argue that the imbalance in funding will need to be addressed if men suffering from prostate cancer are to be given the same hope.
The Duchess of York, whose father, Major Ronald Ferguson, died from prostate cancer in 2003 after a seven-year fight, said better funding was “desperately needed”.
She added: “This disease has been ignored for too long. If more people were able to talk about how strongly they feel about this disease, I believe it would encourage more debate, more funding into diagnostic tests and innovative treatments for men with prostate cancer.”
Every year about 34,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer while 27,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer. There are also similar numbers of deaths from the diseases — 13,000 women die from breast cancer while 10,000 men die from prostate cancer.
Breast cancer awareness month is a well established event to raise the disease’s profile — it is currently in progress. Celebrities taking part this year include the chefs Antony Worrall Thompson and Gary Rhodes and the comedians Jack Dee and Graham Norton.
It has proved more difficult to attract well-known figures to raise awareness of prostate cancer, but Ricky Gervais, creator of The Office, is presenting a radio advert on the subject.
The government- funded Medical Research Council (MRC) shows the same bias as direct state spending on research. The latest figures available from the MRC, which are for 2001, show that it spent £4.8m on breast cancer and less than £500,000 on prostate cancer.
The discrimination is just as marked in charity funding. Cancer Research UK spends £20m a year on breast cancer and £5m a year on prostate cancer. Similarly, Macmillan Cancer Relief spends £11.6m on specialist breast cancer nurses and £2.8m on prostate cancer nurses.
The only current test for prostate cancer, the prostate-specific antigen test, is not considered to be accurate enough to use in a national screening programme. However, John Neate, chief executive of the Prostate Cancer Charity, said the government had been “too passive” about the lack of an effective diagnostic test.
“It is not enough for the government to stand back and say they will introduce a screening programme when a reliable test is found. The government needs to fund research into finding that test,” he said.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1827917,00.html
According to the most recent available figures, total research spending by the government and the leading charity in the field comes to £36.8m a year for breast cancer against £9.7m for prostate cancer. In addition, the NHS spends £72m annually on the national breast screening programme but there is no such scheme for prostate cancer.
The government spends £4.2m a year on prostate cancer research. While it does not disclose how much is spent every year on breast cancer, the figure is estimated to be at least £12m.
High levels of funding for breast cancer research over the past decade have led to dramatic rises in survival rates. Some 64% of women diagnosed with the disease today are likely to live for at least 20 years.
Patient groups argue that the imbalance in funding will need to be addressed if men suffering from prostate cancer are to be given the same hope.
The Duchess of York, whose father, Major Ronald Ferguson, died from prostate cancer in 2003 after a seven-year fight, said better funding was “desperately needed”.
She added: “This disease has been ignored for too long. If more people were able to talk about how strongly they feel about this disease, I believe it would encourage more debate, more funding into diagnostic tests and innovative treatments for men with prostate cancer.”
Every year about 34,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer while 27,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer. There are also similar numbers of deaths from the diseases — 13,000 women die from breast cancer while 10,000 men die from prostate cancer.
Breast cancer awareness month is a well established event to raise the disease’s profile — it is currently in progress. Celebrities taking part this year include the chefs Antony Worrall Thompson and Gary Rhodes and the comedians Jack Dee and Graham Norton.
It has proved more difficult to attract well-known figures to raise awareness of prostate cancer, but Ricky Gervais, creator of The Office, is presenting a radio advert on the subject.
The government- funded Medical Research Council (MRC) shows the same bias as direct state spending on research. The latest figures available from the MRC, which are for 2001, show that it spent £4.8m on breast cancer and less than £500,000 on prostate cancer.
The discrimination is just as marked in charity funding. Cancer Research UK spends £20m a year on breast cancer and £5m a year on prostate cancer. Similarly, Macmillan Cancer Relief spends £11.6m on specialist breast cancer nurses and £2.8m on prostate cancer nurses.
The only current test for prostate cancer, the prostate-specific antigen test, is not considered to be accurate enough to use in a national screening programme. However, John Neate, chief executive of the Prostate Cancer Charity, said the government had been “too passive” about the lack of an effective diagnostic test.
“It is not enough for the government to stand back and say they will introduce a screening programme when a reliable test is found. The government needs to fund research into finding that test,” he said.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1827917,00.html
posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic at
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