I received an email the other day from a woman who was diagnosed with breast cancer while on active duty in the military. She wrote asking for advice on how to reach out to other women that were diagnosed while in the military.
She contacted me, I assume, because of a post I published in May of 2011. http://noboobsaboutit.org/information/breast-cancer-and-women-in-our-military/
She shares that it has been almost 5 years since her breast cancer. Since then, she has been doing some research, and it seems to her that little has been done to investigate breast cancer within the military. She states that the few Congresspersons who introduced bills have moved on.She says that she has not seen any new research on the subject. At first I had to admit that I had not seen or heard of new research being undertaken or any articles on the subjects. But, she got me thinking, and here is what I found:
In October of 2012 Jon R. Anderson, Military Times wrote an article which was picked up by USA Today entitled “Alarming Breast Cancer Rates Among Troops Reported” . To read the article, go to http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/10/02/breast-cancer-troops/1608293
In the fall of 2013, Science Daily reported that rates of breast cancer in the military have remained fairly stable in an article entitled “Breast Cancer Rates Stable Among Active Component Service Women. The article can be found athttp://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131008132652.htm
Also in the fall of 2013, Christi Myers wrote an article for HealthCheck, “Military Researchers Working on Developing Breast Cancer Vaccine” which speaks to the sharp increase in breast cancer among women on active duty, and the need to develop a breast cancer vaccine. http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/health&id=9268138
Stars and Stripes carried an article written in April of 2013, by Seth Robson, which states that military researchers have developed a vaccine that seems to prevent a recurrence of breast cancer. http://www.stripes.com/military-research-yields-new-tool-in-cancer-fight-1.217233
There are more articles about breast cancer in the military, but they are more of the same. The articles either claim no real increase in the rates of women getting breast cancer, or stating emphatically that there is a marked difference between the rates of women on active duty and women in the general population. In his article, Seth Robson states that breast cancer is diagnosed in female troops at a rate 20 percent to 40 percent higher than in the civilian population.
Obviously there are problems over and beyond the ones we all face when we get a diagnosis of breast cancer. What happens to a military career after diagnosis? What about access to support services while in treatment and afterwards?
