Health Disparities Persist for Men
In today’s New York Times Health Section, RONI RABIN includes prostate cancer in a list of men’s health conditions that get less than a fair share of attention and research dollars compared with women’s health conditions:
“Cancer also strikes men disproportionately: one in three women at some point in life; one in two men. In part, that is a result of the fact that more men than women smoke, and possibly of occupational exposures.
But experts and advocates say that when it comes to government financing for the most common sex-specific reproductive cancers, breast cancer financing exceeds prostate cancer financing by more than 40 percent, with prostate cancer research receiving $394 million in 2005, and breast cancer receiving $710 million. The figures, for financing by the National Cancer Institute and Defense Department, were provided by the not-for-profit Prostate Cancer Foundation.
(full story…)