The Cancer Blame Game

CBC MARKETPLACE
The cancer blame game: How blaming the patient is easier than prevention
Broadcast: March 5, 2006

Dr. Sam Epstein, author of Cancer-Gate: How to Win the Losing Cancer War.
Dr. Sam Epstein is a cancer expert. In the late 1970s he rocked the cancer establishment with a book, The Politics of Cancer, which argued that the federal government had been corrupted by industrial polluters.

He's followed that up with another zinger: Cancer-Gate: How to Win the Losing Cancer War.

In it, Epstein argues that we're losing a winnable war against the disease, largely because well-meaning institutions have misspent billions targeting treatment, while virtually ignoring strategies for preventing cancer in the first place.

"The Canadian Cancer Society," he says, "has ignored or trivialized these concerns and told the public if you get cancer, it's your own fault." In fact, Epstein contends "it is the fault of the Canadian cancer establishment, who have not informed the public of this vast range, body of information on avoidable causes of cancer."

Barbara Whylie, head of the Canadian Cancer Society, agrees more should be done: "We as a community --not just the Canadian Cancer Society-- we as a community in the past have done less on prevention than we probably should have. That’s changing.

THE NEW CANCER STRATEGY
The Canadian Cancer Society supports a plan for a national cancer strategy. This will include further prevention work if the federal government decides to fund the strategy.
"We need to do more in the prevention area and are committed to doing it… It's one of the areas that we are promoting very aggressively through the Canadian Strategy for Cancer Control."
In the meantime, other than quitting smoking, Canadians know very little about avoidable environmental causes of cancer. That ignorance, says Epstein, has provided fertile ground for the creation of a cancer epidemic.

For example, Epstein points to the birth control pill, or, as he describes it: "the largest unregulated human trial that's ever been conducted."

In 2005, the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer re-classified certain oral contraceptives as carcinogenic to humans with slightly increased risks for cervical, liver and breast cancer. While the overall benefits of oral contraceptives may be beneficial, it concluded, more study is needed. (The Canadian Cancer Society is reviewing its position on oral contraceptives. The society plans to make a decision this spring.)

Meanwhile, the European Union has banned the import of Canadian beef injected with growth hormones. At least one of the hormones is carcinogenic. Canada argues there is no scientific basis for the ban, and the Canadian Animal Health Institute argues [PDF] that hormones are "a safe, effective production tool for the Canadian beef industry."

PRODUCT LABELLING
In November 2006, new labelling regulations will require manufacturers to list ingredients on personal care products Canada.

And as of January 1, 2005, under the European Union 7th Amendment Cosmetic Directive, cosmetics companies selling products in the EU were ordered to refrain from using certain suspected cancer-connected ingredients, used in some fragrances, hair sprays and nail polishes. In Canada, those chemicals are still found at the cosmetics counter, though you wouldn't necessarily know it. Under Canada's Consumer Chemicals and Containers Regulations, many chemicals are not currently required to be identified on product labels.

Epstein argues that consumers have the basic right to know, through explicit labelling, about known carcinogens in food, cosmetics, personal care and household products. Patients, he adds, should also be better informed of the carcinogenic risks of prescription drugs and screening and diagnostic medical procedures.

According to Epstein, resistance to labelling and better information campaigns comes down to one issue: money. "The more money you spend on cancer, the more cancer you get," says Epstein.

"That's the reason why there's been virtually no movement in the field of prevention… The more drugs are bought, the higher the profit. The more disease there is, the greater the profit."

"Cancer is a massive industry," says Diana Ward, a cancer information advocate in London with the UK Working Group on the Primary Prevention of Breast Cancer. "We're being taught to think about cancer as you do about diabetes, as you do about asthma, and prepare for a time when if you have it, you will just be on a lifelong drug regime."