Bobbyd14 said:
But this subject is very close to my heart as I am still disgusted with how little coverage and education there is on the topic of Prostate Cancer - once again us men are deemed less important.
Yes, I agree with you here...
But I think blaming race for life for being 'sexist' is completely wrong...
In the end of the day the money goes for cancer research UK, which is a charity that finanes
all cancers so it doesn't matter that it is women only...
I'm sure a lot of women don't feel comfortable running with men...
The real issue here is that most of the money is raised for
'fashionable' cancer charities...
E.g. Women's cancer's (Breast cancer / ovarian cancer) and lukaemias get most of the research money, however, lung cancer, prostate and colon cancer charities are not heard of and get practically nothing...
These are very significant cancers... Lung cancer, for example, has by far the highest mortality rate for a given cancer as the majority of people (~90%) will die from it...
http://info.cancerresearchuk.org/cancerstats/mortality/?a=5441
Colon cancer and prostate cancer is fundamentally a problem with screening (in my opinion) and not with money...
We have had national mammography and smear tests programs for women cancer's (breast and cervical) for decades... And it works - dying from cervical cancer is vertually unheard of now...
However, there is no prostate cancer screening and colon screening only came out a couple of years ago but probably 30 years too late... It is pretty shocking that this is the case considering the lives this could save... Just look at the national statistics - colon cancer and prostate cancer, despite having signficantly lower incidence in the population compared to breast cancer, they have the same or higher mortality rates !...
The truth of the matter with cancer is still that if the cancer isn't removed surgically then it will kill you... Only a very small minority of cancers (testicular cancer and lukaemia) have had signficant cure rates with chemotherapy and radiotherapy alone... Most treatment is to prolong life... If you have inoperatable cancers then the chance of a cure is next to none... The reason that breast cancer death rates have dropped is primarily due to screening programs and by rapid access to surgeons i.e. by reforms within the health system and not by people raising money for charities... Much of the recent research money in latest years has been thrown into expensive monoclonal antibody anti-cancer treatments... You here about these things in the news (e.g. Herceptin) but they have been next to useless clinically... Throwing money at anti-cancer charities may make people feel good but as to the good it actually does in reality, this is debatable...