Not all cancer is pink: thinking outside the bra.

Seeing pink? 

Awareness and funds in recent years have meant massive leaps in research for breast cancer. This is amazing news as so many lives have been saved as a result. This awareness is in no small part related to the "pink" campaign. Everyone knows that a pink ribbon is meant for breast cancer awareness, but do you know the colour of the bowel cancer ribbon, or the brain cancer ribbon, or any other ribbons for that matter? 

I have raised money for breast cancer awareness in the past and I will always give money to these campaigns. However, I think that it is about time that we remember that not all cancer is pink! 

Statistics 

It is true that the incidence rate of people being diagnosed with breast cancer is high in the UK compared to many other cancers, in fact overall (as of 2011) breast cancer is the most common cancer in the UK (Cancer Research UK). Despite this fact breast cancer does not cause the most deaths of cancer each year: several others (including lung and bowel cancer) are ahead in mortality statistics. 

Relating back to what I said earlier, most people in the UK that die of cancer die of lung cancer, but did you know the lung cancer ribbon is white? My guess is you didn't know that. 

I want to raise awareness of all cancers, however right now I am going to focus on my cancer: ovarian cancer compared to breast cancer. Ovarian cancer is often known as a "silent killer" among cancers. This is because most people who are diagnosed with this type of cancer are diagnosed too late to be cured. This is due to a number of reasons; a lack of knowledge of symptoms, the fact the symptoms are so similar to many other conditions, and because cancer in the ovaries is hard to spot. 

In 2011 there were 49,936 cases of breast cancer diagnosed, 7116 cases of ovarian cancer diagnosed in the UK. 

You may wonder why I am even comparing the two as there are clearly a lot more cases of breast cancer than ovarian. However, what concerns me is the percentage of deaths of these cancers each year (Cancer Research UK). 

Of the 49,936 people diagnosed with breast cancer in 2012, 11,643 died. However of the 7116 women diagnosed with ovarian cancer, 4271 of them died. 

This means 14% of those diagnosed with breast cancer died, whereas 47% of those diagnosed with ovarian cancer this year died (cancer statistics report). 

In addition: the 10 year survival rate of breast cancer in the UK is 77% of those diagnosed. This is a huge difference from the 35% 10 year survival rate of ovarian cancer patients in the UK. 

So it's clear that you are more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer that ovarian cancer, however you are a lot more likely to die from ovarian cancer if diagnosed. 

This horrible difference between these two cancers is highly attributed to the fact the breast cancer awareness is very high, therefore the money donated to this cause and research is much higher than of ovarian cancer. This is clearly seen from this Cancer Research UK table: 

The research funding for different cancer types in the UK:

          

We can clearly see that ovarian cancer gets 6% of the research funding for cancer in the UK, whereas breast cancer gets the most funding at 19%. 

It is great to know the amazing advancement that we have made in treating breast cancer due to public awareness, donations, and therefore research. However it is sad to see a lack of this for many other cancers, including ovarian cancer. Ovarian cancer is the 5th most common cancer in women, and is responsible for a high percentage of cancer deaths compared to many other cancers. 

Do you know the ovarian cancer ribbon colour? It is a teal ribbon. Even though I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer I had no idea for months that this was the ribbon for my type. When people think cancer they see pink. Why can't they see teal (ovarian), or white (lung), or purple (thyroid) or green (kidney)? Sadly, because they don't know enough about these cancers until it is too late.    

This is why I feel strongly about raising awareness of other cancers, and trying to demonstrate that not all cancer is pink: we really must think outside the bra! This is why once a month I am now going to include a blog post about a different type of cancer each time. 

If there are any types of cancer that you'd really like me to post about just let me know. 

Here is a list of references I used: 

survival rates ovarian cancer: http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/cancer-info/cancerstats/types/ovary/survival/ovarian-cancer-survival-statistics 

survival rates breast cancer: http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/cancer-info/cancerstats/types/breast/survival/breast-cancer-survival-statistics 

Cancer mortality UK: http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/cancer-info/cancerstats/types/breast/survival/breast-cancer-survival-statistics 

Cancer incidence UK: http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/cancer-info/cancerstats/incidence/commoncancers/uk-cancer-incidence-statistics-for-common-cancers 

Cancer statistics report 2012: http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/cancer-info/cancerstats/incidence/commoncancers/uk-cancer-incidence-statistics-for-common-cancers 

Thank you for reading, Amy x