A study on breast cancer is already funded: Canadian Institutes of Health Research/Canadian Breast Cancer Research Alliance, 2004-9, $374,000.

A study on colon cancer is presently under review: National Cancer Institute of Canada, $293,050.

Breast and colon cancer have been selected for their public health significance (commonness, preventive potential: early diagnosis and access to the best treatments with effective follow-up matter), and for their previously observed social gradients in some international contexts. Also, increasingly effective treatments were introduced over this study’s generational time frame for all stages of both breast and colon cancer. They therefore have scientific and clinical power to expose any within- or between-country social gradients, if they exist. They also offer an interesting contrast, in that breast cancer screens are already common practice, while such screens for colon cancer will probably become much more common practice over the next 5 years or so. And high quality primary care may be thought of as a screen of sorts for both breast and colon cancer.