[Ghoulish Delight]

I've also been reading recently that the cancer research community at-large is frustrated with the ubiquity of breast cancer awareness campaigns (spearheaded for the most part by SGK).

It's a fairly common cancer that affects many many people, and it is a very marketable form of cancer in that it sparks the "women are valuable" reflex of modern America. And for a while the cancer research community at large was happy to let breast cancer researchers lead the way. Early on, when there was next to no information for anyone, the research being funded in the name of curing breast cancer was really generic cancer research that benefited all manner of cancer research. But now the vast majority of generic research is done, and any money donated to specific breast cancer charities is being used for highly specialized breast cancer specific research.

Which isn't to say that research doesn't need to continue. But there have been HUGE gains in breast cancer treatments that have not been seen in most other forms of cancer out there. I think the overall 5 year survival rate is well over 70%. Near 100% for early detection. It's amazing, and great that they've made that much progress, but with Susan G. Komen, being the excellent marketers they are, still being the highest profile money-getter for cancer research, other research is getting a short shrift in terms of donations.