'Pink is Not a Cure'
- October is just around the corner, and that means one thing in the cancer community: pink. The pink breast cancer ribbon has become the universal symbol of breast cancer. But some women, especially those living with metastatic breast cancer, say pink is not a cure; it doesn’t represent their struggle.
- Stage 4 breast cancer, or metastatic breast cancer, means that your cancer has now spread to distant areas of the body, and there’s no cure for the disease.
- With advanced disease, the goal of treatment is to keep you as stable as possible, slow the tumor growth and improve your quality of life.
Breast Cancer Awareness Month, an annual campaign to raise awareness about the impact of breast cancer, begins Friday the first day of October. The well-known pink breast cancer ribbon has become the universal symbol of breast cancer. But some women, especially those living with metastatic breast cancer, say pink is not a cure; it doesn’t represent their struggle.
Read More“Research is the reason women are surviving,” Myra Biblowit, president and chief executive officer of BCRF, tells SurvivorNet. “Research is the reason that there has been a 40 percent decline in breast cancer deaths.”
“The public should support funding because that’s what’s going to give us evidence-based data to impact at the bedside,” she adds. “I think that the organizations like BCRF that are on the front lines finding the seminal ideas, putting resources in the hands of researchers are truly making a difference.”
The American Cancer Society says that the 5-year survival rate for localized breast cancer is now at 99%. This is in part thanks to funded breast cancer research. But that number drops to 28% for distant, or metastatic, disease.
Stage 4 breast cancer, or metastatic breast cancer, means that your cancer has now spread to distant areas of the body. It's no longer regionalized to the breast, and while there's no cure for metastatic breast cancer, doctors have a lot of options to treat this stage of advanced disease hormone therapy, chemotherapy and targeted drugs. Sometimes surgery and/or radiation is considered.
Stage Four Breast Cancer: Dr Elizabeth Comen talks about advanced stage breast cancer.
With advanced disease, the goal of treatment is to keep you as stable as possible, slow the tumor growth and improve your quality of life. So, for women living with metastatic breast cancer, no, pink is not a cure. And for other women, pink doesn’t represent them.
Related: Does Breast Cancer Awareness Month Trivialize The Disease?
‘Pink is Not a Cure’
Instagram user @makgagne is one of those people. She's using the hashtag #pinkisnotacure in her most recent post.
"As October approaches and the Pink Breast Cancer bullshit hits the shelves, be cognizant of where your money is going. Pink is NOT a cure," she writes on Instagram. "Research is the only thing that can do that. I don't want Pink, I want a cure!"
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Meghan, also known as @meg_h2018 on Instagram, recently shared photos of herself going through cancer treatment with the words “THIS IS NOT PINK” across the images.
She also says that as “Pinktober” is approaching, she pIans to post every day in order to educate people on metastatic breast cancer. “There's nothing pink about it,” she writes.
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In honor of National Pink Day, observed every year in June, fellow Instagram user @tomikatalks recognizes the power of pink, but agrees that it's not a cure.
"It's National Pink Day so it only makes sense that I remind you to get your mammograms!" she writes on Instagram. "Pink is not on my preferred list but I know many consider it the breast cancer color. Maybe once we have a cure, I'll like it."
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As October looms closer, The Care Project, Inc., a non-profit created to financially and emotionally support male and female breast cancer patients, shares an image on the social media platform with a blunt message: breast cancer is not a color.
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Metastatic Breast Cancer: You Are Not a Statistic
Dr. Kelly Shanahan is the medical director of METUP, an organization committed to changing the landscape of metastatic cancer through direct action. She’s also living with metastatic breast cancer, or as she puts it, she’s dying for a cure.
She's seen and heard all the breast cancer statistics, but she doesn't let those numbers control her life. As Shanahan points out, statistics apply to large populations, they don't apply to individuals. She's living beyond the average life expectancy for her cancer; “I might live two months, I might live 25 years. And I’m going for that 25 years,” she tells SurvivorNet.
As a doctor and a patient, Shanahan says her greatest hope remains with research, which is why she’s an activist for improving clinical trials and an advocate for metastatic-specific research.
“I know that the only thing that is going to save my life and the life of my fellow sisters and brothers with metastatic breast cancer is research,” she says.
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