Well... breast cancer is the most common cancer among women and occasionally - although rarely - occurs in men too, making it a pretty big deal for a lot of people. So that's probably why that cancer specifically gets so much attention in this month. So no it's not just something as simple and shallow as, uh, "save the boobies" as you'd put it. The world doesn't care that much about tits lol. It's because it's a really big deal.
I'm not saying that other cancer types aren't a a big deal but look at is this way - how would we have an awareness month for those? Would we, instead of picking the most common one, pick the most serious one? That's like saying "my cancer is worse than your cancer so I should get all the awareness". No. Any cancer is horrible for the person who has it, so that'd fall flat on its face. Should we really go to town and give every month a cancer type? I'll name twelve now - breast, brain, lung, heart, stomach, throat, skin, blood, colon, bladder, bowel, pancreas. Now you've got people with lymphoma, ovarian, etc. cancer being left out of it all. That's definitely a worse solution than just spotlighting one type of cancer.
And regarding the "why can't there be a general cancer awareness month?" question, well, do you honestly not think that people are aware of cancer enough anyway? I think I saw a statistic a while back saying that one in three of us will either get cancer or have a close family member or friend with cancer. With 33% of the population being affected by cancer I definitely feel like people are pretty aware of it. Adding to that, there's stuff about cancer everywhere. All over TV I see cancer charities asking for money. I see Cancer Research UK posters at train stations and I see their shops on lots of streets. I don't know if it's quite as big as it is here in America and other countries but the point is that it's definitely not something which people don't know about and it's probably not something which, on the whole, needs an awareness raise. Isolating one single type of cancer is a much more effective solution than giving us all a month where we see what we normally see but much more of it.
So yeah basically I... don't think it's really a problem. It just makes sense to me.
s͎̭̚ ̪ͭͩy͔͚̰̻̗̩̺ͣ́ͨ̌͡ ̩̳̙̖̖̺͡m̷̱̘͎̝̘̣͒͌͒̚ ͇͖̔̐̔b̝̪͚̞̦ͬ ̢͔̱̟̞̝͙̮͌̅̈̓̿̿i͐̈̃͊ͯ̎҉̟̠͓ ͕̥̣̪̠̃͑͞ỏ̵͕̠̱̬̬̞͛̋ ̨͈̻̱̟̱͓̪n͒̒͂͊̀ ̻̰̰̜̅̃͒̂͞tͭ̍̈́ ͙͇̘͕͍̜̖ͫ̌̊̿ͫ̂̀:̵̾͒̔͂ ̟͉̜̽͒͌͜p͎͇͎̦̺̙͒͆͋́ͅ ̨̠̠̘͚͖̺ͫ͛̎̉a̲͍̫͖͗̄ ͓͖͍̯̤̼͙̿̆̂̂̄r̬̟̮͖̥̼̆̓͑̃̾ͬ̉͟ͅ ̬̼̗͊͛a̛̯̮ ̮̬͍̙̮̤́ͪŝ͊ͬ̒̎̃ ̧̝̮͎͙͆̓ì͈̹̻̱̾͝ ̘͉͕̭̊ͤ̉̓tͩͯ̉̐ͨͬ̚͏̻̺̖̮ ̞̘͂̋̋ͯ͑ͦ͗e̞͔̎̇ͫ͊͗