While watching a hockey game, I noticed an announcer plugging promotional items in pink, the proceeds of which go to breast cancer research. This is hardly a new trend, as every year Campbell's Soup releases a line of soup in pink labels and thus passes some money to breast cancer charities. There are myriad fund-raising and awareness events for breast cancer, yet (comparatively) little for some of the far more common causes of death in the United States.

Why so much support for breast cancer research, and so little for heart disease? Heart disease kills far more women than breast cancer every year, yet there's so much more support for breast cancer than heart disease. Why almost no public infatuation with lung cancer, despite the fact that it kills more women than breast cancer?

I did a little research on the topic via the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), the American Cancer Society and the American Heart Association. Unless otherwise noted all data is for 2004, the most recent year for which comprehensive data is available.

* In 2004 there were an estimated 149.1 million women in America.
* 461,200 died of heart disease, making it the single most prolific killer of women in the nation.
* Cancer (of all types) is a distant second in the deaths of America women. 40,954 died of breast cancer, while 68,510 died of lung cancer. Cancers of the lung and bronchus actually kill 27,556 more women every year than cancers of the breast, a 67% greater lethality rate.

The punchline: if you are a woman in America, you are over ten times more likely to die of heart disease than cancer.

I searched for financial data relating to charitable giving to breast cancer charities versus heart disease charities and was unable to find sufficient valid, relevant data for inclusion here. Of particular note, while there are 'breast cancer charities', but much of that work is done by umbrella organizations covering all cancers, such as the American Cancer Society. Nonetheless I can't help but notice the disparity in outreach efforts for breast cancer and heart disease.

I can't help but wonder if we're over attached to breast cancer for two reasons. The first, breast cancer almost exclusively kills women (it actually can occur in men, but this is extremely rare), which heart disease kills both men and women. Second, breast cancer attacks the breast, an overt symbol of matriarchal life giving. Most children are suckled at their mother's breast

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