Ovarian Plus: Gynecologic Cancer Prevention News

For all women and the people who love them

RISK REDUCTION + SCREENING + EARLY DETECTION
+ PSYCHOSOCIAL ISSUES + CANCER POLITICS

Volume 2 Number 4 ISSN 1083-4079 Autumn 1996
Excerpts only

Contents

NEW OVARIAN CANCER DETECTION TEST ON HORIZON
By Ceil Sinnex
A new test for detection of ovarian cancer in asymptomatic postmenopausal women has received a favorable preliminary reception from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. In this interview, the three researchers who developed the test give an inside view at what the test will and won't do, and the steps involved in actually getting it into doctor's offices.

OVARIAN CANCER A SILENT KILLER BECAUSE WE REMAIN SILENT
(with related cartoon)
By Sima Rand, MA
The lack of reliable early detection screening tests for ovarian cancer is due to the lack of ovarian-cancer advocates who have money and power. In this essay, the author urges individuals to vote on November 5, and to make their voices heard year-round by demanding more and better ovarian-cancer research.

FROM THE SCENE: WHAT'S NEW WITH OVX1 AND THE MASSIVE LONDON STUDY
(with glossary)
By Ceil Sinnex
Another serum marker test ("blood test"), called OVX1, may become available before the Turn of the Century for use with other such tests to detect ovarian cancer. Meanwhile in London, OVX1, CA125II, and their rates of change over time are being tested as part of a massive screening trial of 120,000 postmenopausal women. Four key collaborators on the trial answer questions for OVARIAN PLUS.

BEHIND THE SCENES WITH THE HUSBAND-WIFE SCIENTIFIC TEAM WHO CREATED OVX1
(with photos of the scientists)
By Ceil Sinnex
Feng Ji Xu, MD and his wife, Yin Hua Yu, MD, set out in 1989 to address the lack of early detection of ovarian cancer. Six months later, they had created a new murine monoclonal antibody, OVX1. How did they do it? Dr. Xu tells the story.

TOPSY-TURVY WORLD FOR YOUNG WOMEN, OVARIAN CANCER
By Shirlee Mohiuddin and Jeannine Corell
Women under 35 when diagnosed with ovarian cancer face the same issues encountered by patients over 35, but our tender ages put us in an unusual situation. We undergo surgical menopause while our friends are having babies, and face our own mortality while in our youth. This essay by young women names some of the problems and makes suggestions for other young women.

REVLON WALK NETS $20,000 FOR OVARIAN CANCER DETECTION
By Emily Ulibarri, CMT
Permanent Charities of Los Angeles raised $1.5 million, of which $20,000 went to an ovarian cancer detection program, with the third annual Revlon Walk/Run for Women last spring. The event's major emphasis was on breast cancer. Breast cancer is America's # 2 cancer killer of women, and ovarian cancer is # 4.

THE ADVOCACY BEAT
Barbara Grant Ashton of Brussels, Belgium has gotten her poster on ovarian cancer symptoms into examining rooms around Brussels.... Susie Kuchera and Pam Marin of Canton, Michigan have launched teal ribbons as a symbol of the fight against ovarian cancer....and...

Gail Hayward of Boca Raton, Florida, founder of the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition, has recruited 800 ovarian-cancer survivors as members... Linda Swanson of Cambridge, Massachusetts, an activist with a special interest in gynecologic cancers, has graduated from an intensive program whose graduates sit on institutional review boards and other cancer policy committees... and...

U. S. Representative Patsy T. Mink, a Hawaii Democrat, has authored a bill called the Ovarian Cancer Research and Information Amendments of 1996. Contact her at U.S. House of Representatives, Washington DC 20515-1102, and...

Ceil Sinnex of Paauilo, Hawaii (editor of OVARIAN PLUS) consulted on the ovarian cancer section of a report from the Congressional Caucus on Women's Issues, "The Women's Health Equity Act of 1996: Legislative Summary and Overview."

RESEARCH! RESEARCH! RESEARCH!
The most popular feature in the OVARIAN PLUS newsletter, two pages jammed with rundowns on recent research on ovarian cancer and endometrial cancer. In this issue: psychosocial challenges after treatment, prevention, ovarian cancer precursors, fertility drugs, pitfalls of gene testing, family history and risk...and lots more!

CONSUMER ALERT: AVOID MISUNDERSTANDING RESEARCH NEWS !
It's easy to get "freaked out" by reports on scientific research. This feature describes how to avoid the traps and, hopefully, stay calm.

SAME DIAGNOSIS ?
MIXED MULLERIAN TUMOR
if diagnosed before May 1994: contact Dorothy Chambers, Professor & Chair, Biology Department, Amarillo College, Amarillo TX 79178-0001 email: DJCHAMBE@ipgate.acxtx.edu

BREAST CANCER METASTASIZED TO THE OVARIES
contact Marie Marano, 105 North Street, Rye, New York 10580

WHAT WE NEED FROM YOU: Ship-to address for receiving UPS delivery, and daytime phone number.

For more details, see GILDA'S SPECIAL OFFER.

Bulletin Board Extras
Thank you to our subscribers in six nations and 32 U.S. states, for supporting this work.

GRIEF can be especially difficult during the holiday season. If you are grieving for the loss of a loved one, the losses that come with your own cancer diagnosis, or other significant losses...
* Grief is normal and necessary for healing.
* Do not let anyone "talk you out of" your feelings.
* Almost every hospice organization throughout the United States provides free bereavement support groups and usually individual counseling to ANYONE who requests it. You need not have any previous tie with a hospice. I, personally, have taken advantage of this wonderful service and highly recommend it. --Ceil Sinnex
* The STRESS-LESS newsletter is publishing a three-part series on grieving this fall to coincide with the holiday season. Find them at http://slnet.com/cip/sl/
* Books to try: MOTHERLESS DAUGHTERS, LETTERS FROM MOTHERLESS DAUGHTERS, FINDING MY WAY by John M. Schneider PhD, and books by Stephanie Ericcson.

SURGERY? Any woman facing surgery, when ovarian cancer is suspected, has the right to have that surgery done by a GYNECOLOGIC ONCOLOGIST, a specialist in cancer of the female reproductive organs. (Source: National Institutes of Health Consensus Statement on Ovarian Cancer, April 1994.) Ask your doctor to refer you, or refer yourself. For names/contact information of three gynecologic oncologists in your area code, call 1-800-444-4441.

OVARIAN PLUS wishes you peace and laughter this holiday season.

Published by OVARIAN PLUS (TM)

The only newsletter dedicated strictly to prevention of ovarian cancer and other gynecologic cancers + for all women and the people who love them

MISSION: To achieve and sustain a significant reduction in the number of women who die from ovarian cancer and other gynecologic cancers, through education and political awareness.

Information published in OVARIAN PLUS (TM) is not to be construed as medical or professional advice. Readers should always consult their physicians for advice and treatment. OVARIAN PLUS does not endorse any research results or treatments reported.

Bylined articles represent the views of the authors, not necessarily those of the publisher.

The title OVARIAN PLUS (TM) is a trademark belonging to Ceil Sinnex.

REPRINTS: Reproduction of OVARIAN PLUS without prior written permission is prohibited, except:
Bona fide subscribers may reprint up to 100 words without further permission, if they mail a copy to OVARIAN PLUS and credit the newsletter thus: "Reprinted from OVARIAN PLUS (TM): Gynecologic Cancer prevention Newsletter"; and make every attempt to add the name of the author of the piece.

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mail check or money order to:

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