Why does the govenment spend more money on breast cancer research than on prostate cancer research?
I always used to think it was an injustice, but we had a series of lectures on cancers before Christmas, which changed my mind. OK, the real reasons are as follows: Breast cancer is responsible for far more deaths than prostate cancer, despite screening programmes (mammograms etc). At autopsy, over half of all men over the age of 70 will be found to have some sort of tumour in the prostate, but the nature of the tumour is nearly always benign and is at most an inconvenience. I should point out that it is not this tumour that has killed them. Whilst there are the odd case of it spreading, these are relatively rare. In fact, most men won’t even have any symptoms and it won’t have the slightest effect on them. Breast cancer on the other hand can spread much more easily because of the huge lymph network that supports the breast tissue, allowing for tumours to become easily metastised to other areas, such as the armpits and contralateral breast, and then often to the lungs thereafter. This
