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Q: What percent of breast cancers are genetically related?

a) 5-10% b) 20-30% c) 50-60% d) 70-80%

A: a) Only 5-10%, according to the American Cancer Society. In fact, only about 20% of breast cancers can be traced to known risk factors such as family history, early menses or late menopause. The remaining causes are unknown. A dangerous myth is that breast cancer is primarily a family-inherited condition.

 
Q: What is the leading cancer killer of American women?

a) breast b) uterine c) ovarian d) lung

A: d) Lung cancer is the leading cancer killer of women.

* The National Breast Cancer Coalition, ** "Cancer Facts and Figures 1996," American Cancer Society

 
Q: The National Cancer Institute, a governmental agency, works on cancer information, treatment and prevention. What percent of NCI's budget is officially devoted to cancer prevention?

a) 5-10% b) 20-30% c) 50-60% d) 70-80%

The NCI says it spends 25% of its budget on prevention, but much of this could be called early detection or treatment, e.g., trials in which women were given Tamoxifen to study the odds of recurrence, and Finasteride, given as a chemopreventative for prostate cancer. The truth is that advancements in drugs, therapies and molecular genetics are exciting and rewarding, but there is less interest and funding for research in environmental policy, public health, personal history, diet and industrial medicine.*

* Robert Proctor, Cancer Wars, 1995, Harper Collins

 
Q: Who said: "The consistent and insidious increases in breast cancer in the U.S. appear to be real -- not artifacts of improved screening, diagnosis, classification or record keeping."?

a) Ms. Magazine b) Greenpeace c) The National Cancer Institute

A: Both b) Greenpeace and c) The National Cancer Institute. Greenpeace's report, "Chlorine -- Breast Cancer Warning," sourced this information from the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 8: 693-696.

 
Q: Who said we've lost the war on cancer?

a) George McGovern b) The National Cancer Institute c) Gordon Dernal d) Stanford President Donald Kennedy

A: All of the above. NCI says that even though $25 billion has been spent on research, survival rates for most cancers remain the same as they were in 1971. Donald Kennedy calls the American cancer campaign a "medical Vietnam." George McGovern says we're losing the war on cancer because of mistaken priorities and misallocation of funds. Gordon Dernal, a conservative Republican, writes about the failure of the war on cancer in his book, The Making of a Conservative Environmentalist.