In the final chapter of their book, Breast Cancer - The Complete Guide, doctors Yashar Hirshaut and Peter I. Pressman address the social issues of breast cancer. I’ve excerpted a few of their observations in today’s blog because they speak to my heart.

The authors open the chapter with these questions: “If, as we have learned, one out of eight women in America will develop breast cancer during her lifetime, why aren’t we doing more about it? Why isn’t this a primary national concern? Why aren’t more effort and more money being put into the problem?”

According to the authors, in 2003 the National Cancer Institute (NCI) had a budget of $536 million for breast cancer research, and the Department of Defense (DOD) allocation was $150 million. Since then the NCI’s budget has increased only slightly and the DOD allocation has dipped. “Despite the significant funds (for breast cancer research) it remains under funded . . . Each year, innovative research proposals are submitted to the NCI for approval. Of those accepted as worthy of support, there is at present only enough money to fund twenty percent. Each grant not funded represents an opportunity lost.”

The role that exposure to toxic agents in our environment may play in causing breast cancer is attracting scientific interest and funding. According to the authors, one causative factor being reinvestigated is a “possible link between breast cancer and insecticide residues that may have entered the food chain and water supply.”

The authors, whose book was published in 2008, had this to say about mammography. “More women than ever are aware of the importance of following an early-detection screening plan: regular mammograms supplemented by breast self-examination and an annual examination by a physician. The proportion of women over forty who get regular mammograms has increased, but we still have not reached all women who should be screened.”

According to the doctors, breast cancer research should have “higher government priorities for funding.” The National Breast Cancer Coalition, headquartered in Washington, D.C., is especially effective in articulating the need for public action. Also effective are the efforts of the Susan G. Komen Foundation in Dallas, Texas, which has become a “major nongovernmental source of breast cancer research funding.” The foundation’s website can be found at: http://www.komen.org

Doctors Yashar Hirshaut and Peter I. Pressman question whether we, as a nation, have the commitment to eradicate breast cancer. “Certainly women have it . . . women who have had breast cancer . . . or whose close friends or relatives have had it. And if we add to that number the men whose wives and sisters and girlfriends and mothers have had the disease . . . it means that a very large proportion of our population has a stake in a national determination to beat breast cancer. Whether we can mobilize to achieve this goal remains to be seen.”