The foundation may be officially called “Susan G. Komen for the Cure,” but, as demonstrated by its advertisements and fundraisers, the Komen foundation makes perfectly clear that its current goal is not the discovery of a cure for breast cancer, but instead to encourage as many middle-aged women as possible to undergo yearly mammograms. And therein lies the problem. Mainstream breast cancer groups, like the Komen foundation, seem determined to convince women that the only way they are going to beat breast cancer, in this day and age, is by early detection, as depicted in the advertisement above. The solution makes sense. The earlier the cancer is caught, the easier it is to remove completely from the body, and therefore the survival rate increases. However, a study published this year in the British Medical Journal stated that yearly mammograms do not reduce the mortality rate among breast cancer patients, as long as they all receive the same, up-to-date level of treatment. Therefore, your survival does not depend so much on “you,” like Komen’s advertisement suggests, as it does on the quality of the treatment process.
The advertisement also states that early detection through mammography increases the “5-year survival rate” for cancer that is caught early, to nearly a hundred percent. This may be true, but that statement doesn’t cover the entire truth. For example, any death beyond five years of survival does not factor into the calculation, and cancer is notorious for being a reoccurring disease. Women, once viewing this ad, may be lured into a false sense of security, believing they will most likely survive their early-detected cancer, only to succumb in six years, after struggling to survive five.
Additionally, radiation is a well-known cause of any cancer, although for mammograms the breasts are more susceptible, as they are what is in contact with the machine. Although the radiation is only a small dosage, and therefore not as large of a risk, the danger is still present, and women would be wise to decrease their chance of risk in any way possible.
Women should not forgo mammograms completely as they are still a useful tool in the fight against breast cancer, but breast cancer foundations should use less energy encouraging yearly appointments, and use that time instead in their search for a cure.
Susan G. Komen. Advertisement. http://www.lastwordonnothing.com/2012/02/08/komen. 2011. Web.
Miller, Anthony B, Claus Wall, Cornelia J Banes, Ping Sun, Teresa To, and Steven A Narod. “Twenty-five Year Follow-up for Breast Cancer Incidence and Mortality of the Canadian National Breast Screening Study: Randomised Screening Trial.” BMJ.com. British Medical Journal, 11 Feb. 2014. Web. 12 Feb. 2014.
Hi Emma, overall I thought your post was well written with no grammatical mistakes. I was caught off guard by the last paragraph, but I understand that the last paragraph is your thesis. I thought your first and second paragraph was grammatically correct and very interesting. I didn’t understand why you added the facts about mammograms and radiation. You said that mammograms emit small dosages of radiation and women should decrease their chances or risk in any way possible. I don’t understand how that relates to your thesis. I think the last paragraph should start your post so the reader knows your thesis. I thought your post was interesting. I found it interesting that breast cancer foundations wasted money for advertisements that doesn’t really help cancer patients. Instead of funding research, these foundations are wasting money trying to get patients to attend yearly appointments. I think you choose a very good image to support your thesis. This advertisement encouraged patients to go get mammograms instead of funding research. Overall this post is well written and grammatically correct. My last comment is that I am doing my research paper on stem cell therapy and how it could potentially treat all kinds of diseases. I think many researchers are trying to discover the cure for cancer by using stem cell transplantation.
ReplyDeleteEmma, I am starting to realize that there is an artificiality to this assignment. Students will not be able to embed, as easily as I thought, these posts directly into their papers. This post is good. I completely understand your argument and how it relates to your thesis. Obviously, though, when you insert this image into your paper, you will have to rewrite much of this to make it jive with your paper as a whole. I am sure you will do that well.
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