Advice on ceasing treatment
Hi everyone I hope someone can help me, this journey is horrible. My mum was successfully treated for breast cancer 9 years ago. Last year it returned with aggression. It attacked her intest...
Forum Discussion
What you write is so very true @Mellyb. While I understand the need for publicity, I am not comfortable with the pink wash of breast cancer.
I find the stats round breast cancer survival to be challenging to pierce. As I understand it the five year 90% survival rate that is often referred to is an overall survival rate. Personally, I don't find the averaging of this number useful. The Cancer Council says the five year survival rate if the cancer hasn't spread beyond the breast is 96%. If it has spread to your lymph nodes it's 80%. Sometimes this stat is given as 83%.
I think this difference needs to be highlighted more in the campaigns about getting women to have mammograms. @JJ70 learned yesterday that only 15% of women respond to the letter you receive at 50 to have a free mammogram. Correct me if I'm wrong Jo, but you also learned that mammograms are free from 45, and have significant effect on mortality rates, but the only thing that's preventing this change in invitation date is funding.
So in the tsunami of hope, pinkness and medical breakthroughs, Stage 4 people get lost. While I understand prevention is better than a cure, I think some scary TAC or smoking style advertising campaigns every now and then amongst the pink hope would be beneficial.
Last night Australia's population ticked over to 25 million. For the sake of this premise, we'll say half of that population is female. That means 1,562,500 of women in this country will have a breast cancer diagnosis at some point in their lives. This is a staggering number.
Every day two women under 40 are diagnosed with breast cancer. Their prognosis is not as good as women over forty. Why isn't self examination taught at school in health classes? (And bundle in some testicle self examination for the boys while you're there thanks). I will be taking my daughter and niece to the GP to give them a lesson when they're in their late teens.
I understand that too scary puts people off (though that doesn't seem to affect the smoking and road accident campaigns, not to mention skin cancer. Remember the ad a few years ago with the woman in her twenties dying from melanoma? I do. And there's that stroke ad on tv right now of the poor lady being turned in bed by her carer) but I'd like to see the BCNA balance the pink hope with some sobering presentations of the reality of breast cancer. And to refresh the hopelessly outdated pink lady logo.
Australian women are more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer than any other cancer. And after lung cancer, it's the cancer they're most likely to die from. (Lung cancer deaths are expected to decline due to the decline in smoking). How many people are aware of that? Yet I can tell you roughly how many people die on Victoria's roads each year.
Awareness, and the implementation of procedures to support what happens as a result of awareness (increased numbers attending screening, increased numbers needing treatment, increased numbers needing support services after treatment for eg lymphedema, mental health) takes money.
I would like to see the BCNA and other breast cancer organisations in Australia:
1. Raise awareness of the seriousness and the prevalence of breast cancer as a threat to womens' health.
2. Lobby the government across a range of areas with the underlying basis that more money up front will remove a huge financial burden later. For example, subsidise the oncotype test for the women who fall into the grey area of needing chemo or not. 70% of them won't, and that will save the health system a huge amount of money, not to mention relieve people of a tremendous amount of suffering. And another example, drop the inviation age for mammograms to 45. That will save a lot of lives and therefore healthcare money in the long run. Not to mention overall economic productivity in our population. When the simple blood test that's recently been discovered (https://theconversation.com/a-new-blood-test-can-detect-eight-different-cancers-in-their-early-stages-90221) is perfected and available, how quickly will the government be prepared to roll it out so it's affordable?
3. More promotion of the risk factors. There's been an ad recently with a plump man standing at the fridge considering a midnight snack, and then we get a gross image of fat coating internal organs and he reconsiders. A survey in March this year found that only 16% of Australians knew the link between alcohol and breast cancer. Alcohol is a Group 1 carcinogen, like asbestos, arsenic, processed meat and tobacco. I was not in that 16% before I was diagnosed. I'd like to see an ad where a woman goes to pour a glass of wine, has an image of a woman with a mastectomy scar, and/or dying in slow agony like my sister did, flash through her head, and then pour herself a glass of mineral water instead. This shit is SCARY. We need fewer pink lunches and pink prizes and pink badges and more information of the facts.
4. Metastatic breast cancer needs more light shined on it. More people need to know about it and understand the risks. More awareness around the reality, prevalence, and rates of recurrence (1 in 10 if your cancer has spread beyond your breast, 1 in 20 if it hasn't according to this 2012 article: https://theconversation.com/how-likely-is-my-breast-cancer-to-recur-and-spread-7715). And having shone the light, more research money needs to be poured into the area. So direct campaigns to raise money for metastatic research. NED is the best we can hope for because breast cancer is a sneaky fucker that can come back at any time. Which is an arse of a way to live. Or die.
Well geeze I've had some time on my hands today to get this rant down on screen eh? Fuelled by a certain level of end of the tetherness due to lack of sleep... Thanks again for that breast cancer.
Mellyb, I'm so sorry your mum, you and your family are going through this. I have an idea of what you're going through as my sister died from this heinous disease two years ago. Her doctors thought they'd 'got' all her cancer but a year later it came back. She lived another two years before dying at 47. My heart goes out to you and all I can say is make some good memories and if your mum wants to leave a legacy, do your best to honour her wishes. She'll always be with you. The biggest of hugs to you all, Kate xox
I find the stats round breast cancer survival to be challenging to pierce. As I understand it the five year 90% survival rate that is often referred to is an overall survival rate. Personally, I don't find the averaging of this number useful. The Cancer Council says the five year survival rate if the cancer hasn't spread beyond the breast is 96%. If it has spread to your lymph nodes it's 80%. Sometimes this stat is given as 83%.
I think this difference needs to be highlighted more in the campaigns about getting women to have mammograms. @JJ70 learned yesterday that only 15% of women respond to the letter you receive at 50 to have a free mammogram. Correct me if I'm wrong Jo, but you also learned that mammograms are free from 45, and have significant effect on mortality rates, but the only thing that's preventing this change in invitation date is funding.
So in the tsunami of hope, pinkness and medical breakthroughs, Stage 4 people get lost. While I understand prevention is better than a cure, I think some scary TAC or smoking style advertising campaigns every now and then amongst the pink hope would be beneficial.
Last night Australia's population ticked over to 25 million. For the sake of this premise, we'll say half of that population is female. That means 1,562,500 of women in this country will have a breast cancer diagnosis at some point in their lives. This is a staggering number.
Every day two women under 40 are diagnosed with breast cancer. Their prognosis is not as good as women over forty. Why isn't self examination taught at school in health classes? (And bundle in some testicle self examination for the boys while you're there thanks). I will be taking my daughter and niece to the GP to give them a lesson when they're in their late teens.
I understand that too scary puts people off (though that doesn't seem to affect the smoking and road accident campaigns, not to mention skin cancer. Remember the ad a few years ago with the woman in her twenties dying from melanoma? I do. And there's that stroke ad on tv right now of the poor lady being turned in bed by her carer) but I'd like to see the BCNA balance the pink hope with some sobering presentations of the reality of breast cancer. And to refresh the hopelessly outdated pink lady logo.
Australian women are more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer than any other cancer. And after lung cancer, it's the cancer they're most likely to die from. (Lung cancer deaths are expected to decline due to the decline in smoking). How many people are aware of that? Yet I can tell you roughly how many people die on Victoria's roads each year.
Awareness, and the implementation of procedures to support what happens as a result of awareness (increased numbers attending screening, increased numbers needing treatment, increased numbers needing support services after treatment for eg lymphedema, mental health) takes money.
I would like to see the BCNA and other breast cancer organisations in Australia:
1. Raise awareness of the seriousness and the prevalence of breast cancer as a threat to womens' health.
2. Lobby the government across a range of areas with the underlying basis that more money up front will remove a huge financial burden later. For example, subsidise the oncotype test for the women who fall into the grey area of needing chemo or not. 70% of them won't, and that will save the health system a huge amount of money, not to mention relieve people of a tremendous amount of suffering. And another example, drop the inviation age for mammograms to 45. That will save a lot of lives and therefore healthcare money in the long run. Not to mention overall economic productivity in our population. When the simple blood test that's recently been discovered (https://theconversation.com/a-new-blood-test-can-detect-eight-different-cancers-in-their-early-stages-90221) is perfected and available, how quickly will the government be prepared to roll it out so it's affordable?
3. More promotion of the risk factors. There's been an ad recently with a plump man standing at the fridge considering a midnight snack, and then we get a gross image of fat coating internal organs and he reconsiders. A survey in March this year found that only 16% of Australians knew the link between alcohol and breast cancer. Alcohol is a Group 1 carcinogen, like asbestos, arsenic, processed meat and tobacco. I was not in that 16% before I was diagnosed. I'd like to see an ad where a woman goes to pour a glass of wine, has an image of a woman with a mastectomy scar, and/or dying in slow agony like my sister did, flash through her head, and then pour herself a glass of mineral water instead. This shit is SCARY. We need fewer pink lunches and pink prizes and pink badges and more information of the facts.
4. Metastatic breast cancer needs more light shined on it. More people need to know about it and understand the risks. More awareness around the reality, prevalence, and rates of recurrence (1 in 10 if your cancer has spread beyond your breast, 1 in 20 if it hasn't according to this 2012 article: https://theconversation.com/how-likely-is-my-breast-cancer-to-recur-and-spread-7715). And having shone the light, more research money needs to be poured into the area. So direct campaigns to raise money for metastatic research. NED is the best we can hope for because breast cancer is a sneaky fucker that can come back at any time. Which is an arse of a way to live. Or die.
Well geeze I've had some time on my hands today to get this rant down on screen eh? Fuelled by a certain level of end of the tetherness due to lack of sleep... Thanks again for that breast cancer.
Mellyb, I'm so sorry your mum, you and your family are going through this. I have an idea of what you're going through as my sister died from this heinous disease two years ago. Her doctors thought they'd 'got' all her cancer but a year later it came back. She lived another two years before dying at 47. My heart goes out to you and all I can say is make some good memories and if your mum wants to leave a legacy, do your best to honour her wishes. She'll always be with you. The biggest of hugs to you all, Kate xox