I think the difference comes from responding to
poor funding years ago; AIDS funding far outstrips either cancers and had far fewer related deaths. Raise a hew and cry to highlight poor funding, and you can turn it around. The prostate advocates need to get on it…
From the American Foundation of Urologic Disease Cancer comparison
The accompanying slide illustrates the relative position of prostate cancer versus breast cancer and AIDS with respect to number of diagnosed cases, number of deaths and research dollars allocated to the study of each disease.
These charts indicate a current funding gap and demonstrate the need for greater advocacy efforts if federal research funding levels for prostate cancer are to increase in proportion to the effect the disease has on public health.
The breast cancer and AIDS communities have been very active in educating the public about the public impact of the respective diseases. In many ways, their advocacy activities stand as a model for all health interests that wish to educate and influence our governmental representatives when it comes time to appropriate research dollars.
From a Diabetes
trade magazine: According to Gary Becker, the 1992 Nobel Laureate, breast cancer research is "so much better funded partly because sufferers are better organized for political activity. Men have tended to keep quiet about their prostate cancers." Becker notes that AIDS research receives four times the funding of breast cancer, and more than 20 times the funds of prostate cancer. "The political effectiveness of AIDS activists surely helps explain why a much larger chunk of the federal budget is allocated to AIDS research than to other terrible and painful ailments," Becker writes.