What Happened to One in 8?

It wasn't all that many years ago that "breast cancer advocacy" organizations, like Komen, were scaring American women silly by telling them that their breast cancer risk was one in eight.

Well, to cut to the chase, that number was NEVER right, and American women's risk was never that high. But it sure got our attention. 

Then, as critics continued to point out the problems with that figure, the organizations modified their line to "a one in eight LIFETIME risk," which was confusing, because they rarely explained what they meant by that. 

Now, for the most part, no one is claiming one in eight anymore. 

What's the truth? 

Well, the one in eight figure came from earlier stats from the National Cancer Institute that said if a woman lived to be in her 80s and didn't die of something else first--say heart disease, stroke, or lung cancer--then she had a one in eight chance of developing breast cancer--NOT of dying of it. 

Now, data from the NCI says that, if you are 25, your chances of developing breast cancer in your lifetime are one in 19,608. 

If you are 35, your chances are one in 622.

If you are 45, one in 93. 

And so on, until you reach the age of 85, when your chances of getting breast cancer are one in nine!

So why don't we worry about something else for a change? All this "awareness" has raised women's fears about breast cancer to an all-time high, according to some doctors, with not much of a gain in long-term survival for those of us who are unfortunate enough to actually be diagnosed with breast cancer. 

Let's shift the attention to domestic violence--perhaps as many as one in three American women will be the victim of domestic violence in their lifetimes. One in three. 

And October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Why aren't I seeing displays of Domestic Violence Awareness Campbell's soup when I go to the grocery store? Or Domestic Violence Awareness Mixers from Kitchen Aid? Not that I'm an advocate of this kind of retail therapy as a solution to the world's problems.

Shopping never cured a disease. And don't let Komen tell you differently. 

@ Jeanne Sather 2008. 

  

Comments

[Carver]

Thought provoking post as usual.

I was reading an article in about the high cost of medications in AARP yesterday and say you mentioned. I thought it was a good article.

[Beth Krajewski]

Thanks. Long overdue.