My cancer paranoia
I have a deep-seated, secret fear when it comes to cancer. It is not that I will die of cancer–we all die of something. It is that, once we have solved the “major” cancers, people will walk away from funding cancer research and those unfortunate souls who have the “lesser” cancers–like carcinoid/NETS or thyroid cancer–will be left to twist in the wind.
Please join us in that fight.
Most people will think I am paranoid for even suggesting such a thing, but the thought has plagued me increasingly in recent months. I look at people refusing to have their children vaccinated against measles, rubella, polio, chicken pox–even whooping cough and shake my head in amazement. I watch the government making cuts to everything imaginable and I shake my head some more.
The cancer funding problem
It is less than six years since the federal government started funding research into NETs/carcinoid again after a 40 year hiatus. The two grants currently funded for
it, combined, amount to about $1 million–and have been cut every year. Search for spending by the American Cancer Society on carcinoid/NETs and you will find nothing on their website. I’m told they spend about $1 million a year on it.
…left to twist in the wind.
The vast majority of the money spent on NETs/carcinoid in the US is privately raised by NETs/carcinoid programs and foundations like Caring for Carcinoid, the Carcinoid Cancer Foundation, and tiny groups like Walking with Jane. What all of us combined raise and spend on the disease amounts to a rounding error on what we spend on breast cancer each year.
Cancer progress is not victory
The progress made on things like childhood leukemia and breast cancer in the last 30 years is mind-boggling. The number of long-term survivors in both groups is remarkable. We’ve had a breakthrough in the last three years on one form of lung cancer. There is good reason for hope and confidence.
…a rounding error on what we spend on breast cancer…
But the fight against cancer is a long way from finished, regardless of what all that good news might lead one to believe. While two-thirds of those who hear the word cancer in a diagnosis today will still be alive five years from now, one-third will still be dead. That will include nearly all those diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, triple negative breast cancer, and brain cancer.
Cancer fight far from over
Most NETs/carcinoid cancer patients who get that diagnosis will still be here five years from now–but only because their cancer is slow-growing. If nothing changes, they will still be tied to the toilet: their frequent diarrhea will have become more frequent, their bloated bellies and painful gas will still plague their every waking moment, and their waking moments will be longer and longer as insomnia claims more and more of their nights.
…one-third will still be dead.
Nationally, Relay For Life has a new slogan on its t-shirts this year: “Finish the Fight.” For me, at least, that statement infers the fight is nearly over in the mind of the American Cancer Society. We are in the middle of a war whose outcome very much remains in doubt. We have won some important battles and–perhaps–the tide is beginning to turn. But a single battle–or even a string of battles–does not always mean the war is won.
No time for over-confidence
Napoleon won many battles, but he ultimately lost the long war he was engaged in. Barring George Patton’s miraculous march during the Battle of the Bulge, the world we live in today might be considerably different. That’s one reason I keep walking for our Greater Fall River Relay for Life.
We have won some important battles…
Humanity’s long war against disease–of which the battle against cancer is but one small, but significant, part–is not over until the enemy is truly vanquished. We cannot accept a marginal or tactical victory over cancer any more than we accepted that level of victory over small pox. That means reducing every form of cancer to the level of a fairy tale or nursery rhyme we tell children to get them to behave.
Where the money really comes from
We need to finish the fight. But we need to understand, as well, that fight is far from over–and that the money for that fight largely comes from events like Relay For Life, the Pan Mass Challenge, the Marathon Walk and the thousand other walks, runs and events groups of every size use to raise the money to support the research.
We cannot accept a marginal or tactical victory over cancer…
