Letter | Lesser-known cancers

Kudos to Dr. Marsano and Rev. Dykstra for their recent letters regarding cancer-related issues. If I may keep the theme going, I’d like to make a “plug” for those of us with the rare, unheralded cancers. Mine, for example, is diagnosed in just 6 out of a million Americans, and I’m now at the “half-life” of my expected survival rate.

It can be depressing for people afflicted with little-known cancers to see the bulk of publicity (and research) given to the more “high-viz” cancers. For example, why does the NFL dedicate an entire month to just breast cancer, or why do Kroger and the Derby have a breast cancer survivor walk? This is not a slam on breast cancer coverage. I’ve had relatives with the disease and I know it ravages about 12 percent of U.S. women.

They certainly deserve research and attention; I really do get it. But sometimes we fellow travelers feel like we’re on the sidelines, watching other cancers get all the attention and the funding. There is a Rare Cancer Awareness Day being proposed nationally, and I’m only urging greater awareness, coverage, and research regarding the lesser-known cancers. We’re sick of this wretched disease as well.

MARK FASSIO

Pendleton, Ky. 40055 –