Cancer Schmancer: Why Early Detection is the Key

Fran Drescher is part of Change.org's Changemakers network, comprised of leading voices for social change. Change.org asked Ms. Drescher to respond to questions to provide context for her work and the causes she supports.

Change.org: What cause or causes would you most like to promote as a Changemaker and why?

Cancer Schmancer, of course! Ya know, many researchers and billions of dollars are dedicated to finding a cure for cancer, and boy, I sure hope they find it. But we have the power to save lives today by arming every woman with the information she needs to prevent cancer and detect it early, when it’s most curable. With knowledge and the screening tools available, many cancers can be diagnosed earlier than they often are, which can lead to better patient outcomes and greater cancer survival rates. Who doesn’t want that? We need to work together to do so.

Change.org: If you could ask 1 million people to all do 1 thing to advance causes that matter to you, what would it be?

Become a medical consumer! By that I mean become better partners with your doctors, ask questions and play an active role in your own healthcare. And tell everyone you love to do the same!

Change.org: Tell us a bit about your personal story and how did you come to care so much about this issue?

It took me two years and eight doctors to get a proper diagnosis for the symptoms I was experiencing, which turned out to be uterine cancer.

I felt betrayed by not only by my own body, but the medical community. In 2002, I wrote Cancer Schmancer, to tell my story of survival so what happened to me wouldn’t happen to others. After I went on my book tour, I realized that what happened to me had happened to so many women like me. And so it was then I realized the book was the beginning of a new life’s mission to improve women's healthcare in America. I started Cancer Schmancer as a movement to educate women and to shift this nation's priority from just searching for a cancer cure towards prevention and early detection of cancer.

Change.org: What are the greatest obstacles to change on your issue?

I feel the problem is two-fold. Women worldwide need to take control of their bodies and leave behind the Victorian notion that “if you can grin and bear it, do so, because your family comes first.” Women need to put their own health first because they are no good to the ones they love if they are six feet under.

The other side of the fold is the health care system. Do you know the saying “If you hear hooves galloping, don’t look for zebra because it’s probably a horse?” Well that’s the philosophy most doctors subscribe to. Often the medical community is bludgeoned by big business health insurance companies to go the least expensive route of diagnostic testing, so the tests you need may not even be on the menu at the doctor’s office. As educated medical consumers, we must research and know the tests that are available and request them from our physicians. We must insist that the diagnostic tools and cancer screening tests we women need become part of our basic healthcare plan, especially now when our nation is facing cut backs on screening tests. We’re headed in the wrong direction and we need to put our focus on finding out what’s causing cancer and how we can detect cancer early. After all, Stage 1 is the cure!

Photo credit: KaiChanVong