METAvivor
Research and Support, Inc. and Eisai Inc. announced today the launch of “The
Elephant in the Pink Room,” a campaign designed to place a spotlight on
metastatic breast cancer (MBC), a form of the disease that causes nearly 40,000
deaths per year and is often ignored, particularly during Breast Cancer
Awareness Month in October.
Approximately
30 percent of patients with breast cancer will develop MBC – cancer that has
spread beyond the breast – and 97-99 percent of those patients will eventually
die of the disease. However, an analysis of cancer organizations from the
Western world suggests that only about five percent of total cancer research
funding goes toward metastatic disease of any cancer type. “The Elephant in the
Pink Room” campaign is designed to give a voice to this often overlooked
community.
To help reduce the disparity, Eisai has
pledged a multi-year donation to METAvivor to help fund critical research for
patients with MBC. In addition, during Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Eisai
will donate $1 (up to $25,000) to METAvivor for every visit to, and action
taken on, www.MBCaware.org. Actions include: ‘liking’
METAvivor’s Facebook page, joining METAvivor’s
email list, following the campaign on Twitter and
using the #MBCaware hashtag in October.
“The
now ubiquitous pink ribbon—and the color pink altogether—has long stood as a
cherished symbol of the breast cancer community. But the spirit of ‘pink’
often overlooks the critical needs of patients with MBC. MBC is almost always
fatal, and is the worst nightmare of every patient with breast cancer. Thus
along the lines of out-of-sight, out-of-mind, MBC has become the elephant in
the pink room,” says Dian “CJ” M. Corneliussen-James, Co-Founder and President of
METAvivor. “This October we are asking for nationwide recognition of our
community: its existence, difficulties, and tremendous need for support and
research. Thanks to partners like Eisai, we can now move toward our vision of
raising the level of research and support for MBC to 30 percent in order to
help the 30 percent of patients with breast cancer who have metastasized—and
will continue to metastasize.”
Unfortunately,
metastasis can happen to anyone at any stage of the disease making additional
research and patient support services critical for this community.
“We’ve
consistently heard from patients with MBC that they feel left out of the pink
ribbon conversation in October because conversations and resources are focused on
prevention and early detection,” said Brian Eckley, Director of Corporate
Advocacy at Eisai. “Our partnership with METAvivor is in addition to a larger,
multi-year effort to help raise the volume on the need for research that will
benefit this overlooked community, and is just one example of our dedication to
helping affect change for these patients.”
