We are women and men with breast cancer, and their loved ones, whose aims are (1) to inform supporters of the Susan G. Komen Foundation about the tragically low percentage of their money being spent on research; and (2) to convince Komen to dramatically increase research funding and transparency about how donors’ money is being spent.

Note: We are NOT affiliated with the Susan G. Komen Foundation or any other breast cancer charity.

Watch this short video to see reactions from Komen racers:

Our Komen Awareness Truck arrived at Komen HQ October 8

Where does your money go?

If you are interested in learning why spending $93 million dollars last year on education is problematic, please read the section below entitled “What’s Wrong with Spending So Much on Education?"

Get Involved

There are at least four ways you can help, and all four of them are extremely quick and easy!

1. Contact Komen (HQCommunications@komen.org) and ask them to spend at least 50% of their expenditures on research grants, as well as to display the percentage breakdown of their priorities clearly on their homepage.

2. Donate to breast cancer charities that spend a far greater percentage on research. We have two suggestions in the video but there are many other options as well. The two that we suggest as far better alternatives to Komen for research are METAvivor and Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF), both of which spend at least 90% of their expenditures on research grants. If you wish to go directly to the donation pages of these charities, you can do so here: METAvivor and BCRF.

(Not only are we NOT associated with those charities, but they have no idea we are doing this. They have no involvement.)

As we stated above, there are MANY better options than Komen when it comes to supporting research. Although there are too many good alternatives to name here, generally donations to large research institutions like Memorial Sloan Kettering, Fred Hutchinson, Dana Farber, or any university-based breast cancer research program will result in a greater percentage of your dollars supporting research.

3. Share this video: Spread the word about CureKomen.org and #CureKomen

4. Since the initial protest in New York, we’ve had many requests from people all over the country to buy our #CureKomen T-shirts, as well as inquiries about how to obtain the business-card-sized “Awareness Cards” we gave away to runners at the New York City Race for the Cure. If you’d like to help inform participants at other Susan G. Komen events about how little of their money is being spent on research, you can find information about local Komen races and walks on their website. We have no idea how sustainable this offer is due to financial constraints, but while supplies last (we hate to sound infomercial-y, but it’s true), we would like to be able to offer a FREE Prescription Pack, which includes one T-shirt of your size (if we have it left) and a 250-pack of “Awareness Cards” to hand out at the event. We found people were generally VERY receptive to the cards and to receiving the information, especially because we offered them politely to runners and we did not criticize them or their efforts (nor is there any reason to have a negative tone with them; they are there because they want to help). Inquire about getting your Prescription Pack by sending us a message at curekomen@gmail.com.

About Us

We are a group of women and men with breast cancer, and their friends and family, who seek to draw attention to the tragically low percentage of donors’ money that the Susan G. Komen Foundation spends on research grants. We are working in partnership with METUP, an organization devoted to changing the breast cancer landscape through a focus on research, with an emphasis on metastatic (i.e. Stage IV) breast cancer.

(We are NOT affiliated with the Susan G. Komen Foundation or any other charity described in the video.)

What’s Wrong with Spending So Much Money on Education?

We are not arguing that no money should be spent on education. However, spending $93 million on education last year alone is problematic for two major reasons:

1. Most of Komen’s donors have no idea that this is how the majority of their money is being spent. Therefore, for the sake of transparency, either Komen should commit to devoting at least half its donors’ money to research or it should change its marketing (e.g. reducing prominence of references to research relative to other priorities, changing the name of its signature “Race for the Cure” event). Either way, Komen should commit to communicating the specific funding allocation percentages in a prominent place on its website so that current and prospective donors can easily see how their money is being spent.

2. It appears that much of Komen’s public health education campaigns are focused on urging women to get mammograms. This is presumably based on the central premise that mammograms are very effective at identifying tumors early enough that women can be treated before those tumors spread and eventually advance to the fatal stage of the disease. Unfortunately, a multitude of papers published in the medical field’s top journals in recent years have demonstrated that the benefit of mammogram testing is disappointingly modest.

To take just one example, one meta-analysis published in JAMA estimated that for every 1,000 50-year-old women undergoing annual mammogram screening for 10 years, 1 woman would avoid dying of breast cancer due to the screening. Of course, every life saved is important, but the same analysis estimated that for every single life saved, six women will end up dying from breast cancer despite yearly mammograms, and another six will be overdiagnosed with breast cancer, meaning they will get treated for breast cancer (e.g. biopsies, chemo, radiation, mastectomy) even though they never would have been harmed by it. (Here is a nice visual summary of this per 10,000 women.) A decades-long strategy of prevention through education has not meaningfully reduced the number of breast cancer patients that die in the U.S. each year.

Think of it this way: What if firefighters used technology that could save only one burning house out of seven, and for every house that it saved, it actually damaged six additional houses that never would have experienced any problems? Would you spend $93 million a year on education urging firefighters to continue to use that technology? Or would you invest a large portion of that money getting firefighters better technology to put out the fires?

We do not fault Komen for focusing on education in the first decade or two of its existence, before this evidence published in the top medical journals came into clear focus. But if Komen ignores these rigorously conducted and scientifically grounded research findings in future funding allocations, it would constitute the charity equivalent of malpractice.

In short, education may be able to save a small number of lives, but research may be able to save them all.

(For those wishing to learn more about the topic of mammograms and breast cancer, excellent summaries of the research can be found here, here, and here.)

Protest

On Sunday, September 8, 2019, a group of women with breast cancer and their friends/family protested the New York City Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure event. The central purpose was to inform runners/fundraisers how little of the money they raised for the Race for the Cure event goes to research. In addition to some chants and signs to get the attention of Komen race organizers and the runners, we handed out “Awareness Cards” to runners/fundraisers so they would truly be aware of how their money is being spent. People who received the cards were VERY receptive to the information and often reacted with great surprise and disappointment. Click here to see photos from the protest.

Many individuals have been getting in touch with us about organizing their own protests of local Komen fundraising events. Until we see Komen allocating at least 50% of its budget for research, we will continue to support future protests. See the “Getting Involved” section if you’d like support from us at a future event, as “Komen Awareness Cards” are a very powerful way to inform runners/fundraisers the truth about Komen’s spending.

So far we have had volunteers go to events in New York City, Toledo, San Francisco, and Komen’s Headquarters in Dallas, and many more are being planned. Please feel free to let us know if you would like help planning for a future event.