In response to commentator Eric Rossen's "The stigma of lung cancer" (March 1), I concur that people are quick to assume if you have lung cancer you must have smoked and that few people know lung cancer is the leading cause of all deaths from cancer.
But Mr. Rossen ignored the grim outlook for the 150,000 people in the U.S. living with metastatic breast cancer, also called Stage IV.
Every year, 40,000 people die from this disease. And there is no cure. People who have it are in treatment for life, and the median survival rate is 2.5 to 3 years.
According to the Metastatic Breast Cancer Alliance, metastatic breast cancer research made up only 7 percent of the $15-billion invested in breast cancer research from 2000 to 2013. Metastatic breast cancer makes up 99 percent of all breast cancer mortality and morbidity, yet it gets just 7 percent of the research dollars.
Mr. Rossen also overlooks the appalling state of funding for all clinical trials in the U.S. When adjusted for inflation, the National Institutes of Health budget is nearly 25 percent below its 2003 level.
The median age for breast cancer in the U.S. is 61. Many assume if you have Stage IV breast cancer you must be elderly. Not true. The Sun's top editor, Mary J. Corey, died at age 49 from metastatic breast cancer, and it is the leading cause of cancer deaths in women under 40.
I am sorry Mr. Rossen's mother has lung cancer. My mom died from metastatic breast cancer in 1983, two weeks after I graduated from high school. She was 53 years old. I was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer at age 43. I will die with or from the same disease that killed my mother 30 years ago.
By Mr. Rossen's calculations, the federal government spent $26,398 per breast cancer death. That $26,398 is doing nothing for me or the 40,000 other people in the U.S. who will die from breast cancer in 2015.
Katherine O'Brien, LaGrange, Ill.