An Advocate Reflects on Cancer Research and Social Realities

[Guest guest]

Musa Mayer a breast cancer advocate has written an article in the Journal of

Clinical Oncology that will be of interest to those who work as prostate

cancer advocates.

In the years since 1989, when I was diagnosed with breast cancer, the

advocacy movement has matured, and many of us have matured within it. It is

a little embarrassing now to be confronted with my own naïveté, rereading

what I wrote about breast cancer research and drug development a decade or

so ago. Not only did I oversimplify the research process, underestimating

its daunting challenges, but I was largely unaware of the distorting

influence financial incentives can have on research. In the name of hope, I

was far too willing to abandon critical thinking and jump onto the latest

bandwagon. Like so many, my judgment was easily hijacked by upbeat media

sound bites and by what I wanted to believe was true about breast cancer

research, rather than the realities, which represent a far more complex and

nuanced story.

Go to the link below to read more.

http://prostatecancerblog.org/?p=126