I'm not so sure that the more "famous" cancers have any better outcomes than bladder cancer.
While more fame may bring more money and it may get people to get into a urologist sooner, it is most likely the latter that will save lives. If GPs recognize the signs of bladder cancer and people get into treatment sooner, they have better outcomes.
Breast cancer and prostate cancer have much higher incidences than bladder cancer so it kind of makes sense that they are more well known.
Here are incidence rates (2006):
and here are death rates (2006):
As you can see, bladder cancer is number 6 in the U.S. for incidences but it is not in the top ten for deaths. That's a good thing for us.
I'd rather have a not as famous cancer and get cured from it than a famous cancer that still winds up killing me. The fancy ribbons and t-shirts and walkathons, runathons, telethons are not cure-a-thons. I think my RC surgery was a cure-a-thon for me.
Other than support groups such as this one, the best investment with the highest return would be in educating GPs to recognize the signs of bladder cancer and get people to urologists who can then diagnosis it then refer the patients to the top bladder cancer hospitals.
Oh yeah....everyone needs to quit smoking also. That has the potential to reduce the new cases of bladder cancer by 60-70%.
Mike
NOTE: If you click on the charts, they get bigger and easier to read.
Here is my source for the charts:
apps.nccd.cdc.gov/uscs/toptencancers.aspx
Another note: The source is CDC (a government agency) and the data is only updated to 2006 and it is now 2010. Anybody STILL think government run health care is going to be better????