Breast cancer, one of the most common cancers among women, also has the distinctive honor of having its own heavily-advertised awareness campaign.


While the pros and cons of the Pink for October awareness campaign have been debated for some time (check out these BlogHer articles from October 2007), one of the key issues with the breast cancer movement is the sheer magnitude of it. While there are countless agencies researching breast cancer causes, cures and treatments (whom are funded by even more philanthropic and corporate entities), there has never been an attempt to organize the fight against the disease. As a result, the research is fractioned, sometimes disorganized, and even duplicated at times. (Think Before You Pink produced an excellent PSA on this very topic that may be viewed here.)

However, there is a new movement afoot; a movement to coordinate the efforts of the dozens of agencies into a more stream-lined approach. The first ever Collaborative Summit on Breast Cancer Research was recently held near Washington DC and brought representatives from twenty-seven funding and research agencies together. Marisa Acocella Marchetto, the author of the amazing book Cancer Vixen, on her new HealthCentral blog, recently offered her own take on the Summit:

Sharing can also minimize overlapping studies and help get more out of funding. We all know that the US Government only spends 11 billion dollars annually on ALL cancer research, and we as a nation must demand more and this is another big IF, as in IF we received more money from the U.S. Government for research and...

Here's hoping that the new "culture of collaboration" will streamline the effort against breast cancer into a thorough and quick eradication of the disease.