DIARY OF A GRANDFATHER: Why is a Breast more equal than a Prostrate?

Why is a Breast more equal than a Prostrate?

Although I am loath to compare one organ in one sex to another organ in the other the treatment of breast cancer and prostate cancer is a remarkable study in the treatment and health care priorities of societies towards women and men. Health is not a competition but these facts are startling.

In England[i] prostate cancer research receives 4% of the funding that Breast cancer research receives. Despite the difference in mortality being only 1% and the fact that no reliable test has been developed for prostate cancer. Actually prostate cancer may be a far bigger killer as it is often undetected and the cause of death is blamed on something else.
In 2009, over 13,700 people were diagnosed with breast cancer in Australia. The risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer by age 85 is 1 in 8 for women and 1 in 724 for men.[ii]
In 2007, 2680 women and 26 men died of breast cancer in Australia.
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed in

Australia¹ and the third most common cause of cancer death. It is more common in older men, with 85% of cases diagnosed in men over 65 years of age.
In 2009, over 19,400 new cases of prostate cancer were diagnosed in Australia. This represents more than 30% of all cancers diagnosed in Australian men. The risk of being diagnosed with prostate cancer by age of 85 is 1 in 5 men.
In 2007, there were 2,938 deaths caused by prostate cancer, accounting for 13% of all cancer deaths in Australian men.
A SPECTACULAR gender gap has resulted in men's health problems being allocated a quarter of the funding women's health research gets, ranked just ahead of parasitic infections. [iii]
This is even though men die four and a half years earlier than women, and are 60 per cent more likely to die from cancer.
It is one reason there is still no reliable test to detect aggressive forms of prostate cancer, a bigger killer than breast cancer.
Men's health ranked 36th for federal government health research funding in 2012, behind sexually transmitted infections and just ahead of parasitic infections, an exclusive analysis by News Corp Australia shows.
Since 2003 women's health research received more than $833 million from the National Health and Medical Research Council compared to less than $200 million for men.
Breast cancer received $60 million more than prostate cancer and ovarian cancer $64 million more than testicular cancer.
The smaller funding for men's health research is a paradox given their average life expectancy is just 79.7 compared to 84.2 for women.
And the fact that one in two Australian men will be diagnosed with cancer by the age of 85 compared to only 1 in 3 Australian women.
There were twice as many applications to the NHMRC for breast cancer as for prostate cancer and five times more for ovarian cancer than testicular cancer in the decade 2003-2013, an NHMRC spokesman said.