Just Diagnosed with Cancer? Chat with Experts

The Costs of Breast Cancer

By PJ Hamel, Health Guide Sunday, April 13, 2008
You’ve seen the ads: “Going out to dinner: $50. Ordering dessert: $16.00. Staying for coffee: $8. Giving your kitchen the night off: priceless. There are some things money can’t buy…” Followed by the MasterCard message.That’s how I feel about having breast cancer....
Breast Cancer In the News: Exercise, One-Step Radiation, Clean Margins and More
4/15/08 10:15pm

I'm with you on this one, PJ.  If the suit were a class action suit representing a large number of women, I would feel differently.  But a multi-million-dollar settlement for three women makes me a bit squeamish.  As does the idea of personal gain from having BC - or any disease, for that matter.  (Particularly considering all the women whose access to diagnosis, treatment and care is limited by lack of money). 

 

I also used HRT (not Premarin or Prempro).  It would be satisfying, in a way, to be able to blame that for my cancer.  But that would be discounting other potential contributing factors: late childbearing; happily drinking my way through my 20s; having "dense breast tissue" (recently implicated).  And those are just some that we know about.  Who knows what other physical and lifestyle factors will be discovered to have a possible effect?

PJ Hamel, Health Guide
4/16/08 5:44am
That's the key, Andrea - we don't know if it was HRT, radon, genetic predisposition, eating too many Big Macs... or maybe nothing at all. Just the randomness of the Universe. There's simply no way of knowing for sure what causes breast cancer. If drug companies (or their insurance companies) have that much money at their disposal, let's put it to better use than "payback" to a handful of women.

Ask a Question

Get answers from our experts and community members.

Btn_ask_question_med
View all questions (6580) >
By PJ Hamel, Health Guide— Last Modified: 11/02/11, First Published: 04/13/08