RISK REDUCTION + SCREENING + EARLY DETECTION
+ PYSCHOSOCIAL ISSUES + CANCER POLITICS
The basic structural and functional unit of life is the cell. Humans are made up of billions of cells. Genes are found within cells.
A gene is a unit of genetic material that determines a hereditary trait. All cells within an individual contain the same group of thousands of individually different genes.
Cancer is a general name for a category of diseases featured by abnormal cell growth that....
The article provides a basic grounding in how cancer arises, describes familial clustering of ovarian cancer cases, explains that the BRCA1 gene is found in the cells of all humans. The American Society of Human Genetics has made recommendations about the use of BRCA1 testing. Four goals of ongoing research at the Gilda Radner Familial Ovarian Cancer Registry are described.
The author: Richard A. DiCioccio, PhD, is a cancer research scientist and Coordinator of Basic Research for the Gilda Radner Familial Ovarian Cancer Registry. He is a Research Associate Professor of Gynecology and Obstetrics, and of Biochemistry, at the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Stories from Australia and South Africa help this issue of OVARIAN PLUS (TM) to challenge the Information Blackout on ovarian cancer and other below-the-belt cancers. The Blackout is an international problem
But the lack of public education is especially disgraceful in the United States, where $97 million of our tax money was appropriated in 1995 by Congress to the National Cancer Institute for research and education about gynecologic cancers.
It's time to ask what we got for our money. And it is equally important that the funding remain adequate for the still-neglected priorities of education and innovative research aimed at prevention.
"OVARIAN PLUS readers should vote for Members of Congress who support investment in health and human services programs," says U.S. Rep. Patsy T. Mink (D-Hawaii). Don't miss Mink's compelling argument that "borrowing" is not a dirty B-word--on Page 3.
Mink introduced legislation that quintupled the Feds' spending on ovarian cancer research in five years, to $37.8 million last year. But she's not satisfied.
"In the year 2000, I would like to see the widespread use of a simple, reliable and safe early detection test for ovarian cancer," says Mink. "I'd like a federal program on ovarian cancer screening, and an annual budget of $100 million on ovarian cancer research. I like to think big."
To which I can only say, "Amen." And thinking big is what OVARIAN PLUS is all about.
One of the two major ovarian cancer screening programs in Southern California has moved to a private office setting in Los Alamitos after its contract was not renewed at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center.
The program was founded at Long beach Memorial by Michael Crade MD and Victoria Chiu MD ion early 1990....
The author: Emily Ulibarri is a medical transcriptionist/medical language specialist and ovarian cancer activist who lives in Whittier, California.
The major initiative of the new Republican majority in Congress is cutting federal spending to reach a zero deficit...To most, a balanced budget sounds essential, but I urge closer review of the situation...
The author: U.S. Rep. Patsy T. Mink (D-Hawaii) introduced the historic Ovarian Cancer Research Act of 1991 and two subsequent bills that led to the exponential increase in federal spending on ovarian cancer research. Her achievements for women's health span more than 30 years in Congress. Congresswoman Mink, the victim of a secret medical experiment in which she was given DES (diethylstilbestrol) while pregnant, takes a personal interest in ending the neglect of women's health.
The National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society have published but not announced that in the United States, 44.84 percent of all men and 39.26 percent of all women will get cancer....
The author: The late Joanne Freundlich worked as instructor of finance at City University in New York City, and as a securities analyst.
Joanne Freundlich, who wrote the above expose' as a press release last summer, lost a five-year battle with ovarian cancer Oct. 26....
Be skeptical. Research results reported in medical journal articles are seldom great breakthroughs, even though presented as such....Warning! Note the date...
Insurance and Risk-Reduction Surgery
Triple Diagnosis for Ovarian Cysts
Sunlight and Ovarian Cancer Mortality
Outpatient Endometrial Assessment
Endometrioid Ovarian Cancer is Not Rare
Risk of Ovarian Cancer
Almost immediately after my ovarian-cancer diagnosis in December 1993, I began encountering the PMA, or Positive Mental Attitude, disease--as in, "You just have to keep a positive attitude." .....
The author: Charlotte Kiefer is a staff writer at Cornell Information Technologies, where she creates publications about computing for the Cornell University community. She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer stage IIIB at age 44.
Gestational Trophoblastic Disease (GTD) includes several types and subtypes of neoplasia, or abnormal growth which may be malignant, arising from pregnancy. GTD is not common....Not all GTD patients are considered at high risk for recurrence in a future pregnancy. Almost all GTD is now curable...
How can it be that the sun shines, the sky is blue, everything seems so beautiful, you feel like singing out of joy...and then, half an hour later, all you feel is fear and grief? Oh! It can happen so easily...
The author: Leon Kruger is a veterinary technologist in Pretoria, South Africa, where he is part of a research team doing research on parasites of sheep. His wife, Jansie, is a microbiologist. Not surprisingly, both are "animal fanatics." Leon Kruger and Jansie are the proud parents of baby Ellen Charne Kruger, adopted just before Christmas.
SMEAR CAMPAIGN
Page 2 of the autumn 1995 edition of OVARIAN PLUS (TM)
contains the same erroneous statement made by the American Cancer
Society. It is rare to have ovarian cancer diagnosed by a Pap smear, but
it did happen to me and has to others.....
Linda L. Smith
Massillon, Ohio
EDITOR'S REPLY: Thank you for bringing this to our attention...OVARIAN PLUS regrets the error, and strongly advocates an annual Pap smear for all women throughout life.
"It was malignant." Through the numbing half-consciousness of the anesthetic, I heard my husband speaking on the phone to my mother...Somehow, it was not a surprise...
...We then had to wait three days for the biopsy report...I had to face the reality of drug treatment. I was terrified. No one, in those first weeks, suggested psychological counseling. You are left to muddle through as best you can....
....[Our general practitioner] suggested a psychologist, who sympathetically and knowledgeably helped both of us come to terms with my condition....
If you are ever diagnosed with cancer, I suggest:
The author: As chairman of Juanita Scott Travel n Melbourne, Australia, Juanita Scott, 53, travels to inspect hotels and resorts, and writes for travel publications. She and husband Andrew renewed their marriage vows at Vatulele Island in Fiji, exactly a year to the day after her March 1992 diagnosis. They are proud parents to a Keeshond and a West Highland White Terrier.
The first two in a series of information packets are available from OVARIAN PLUS. Packets include medical and popular articles, and more/ the talc packet, for activists interested in the link between cosmetic talc powders and ovarian cancer, also includes correspondence with public officials.
The publicly-available materials represent an intensive ongoing collection effort. The charge includes copying, first-class mailing and handling in the U.S. Outside U.S., please add $5. Each packet contains about 75 pages.
ROBERT C. BAST, JR., M.D., co-developer of the CA125 serum marker test, is Chief of Medical Oncology at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston
A.C. "CRAIG" EVANS, M.D., Ph.D., has a doctorate in endocrinology and is a Fellow in Gynecologic Oncology at Duke University Medical Center
ARTHUR C. FLEISCHER, M.D. is Chief of Diagnostic Sonography and Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center
HOLLY H. GALLION, M.D. is Associate Professor of Gynecologic Oncology at the University of Kentucky
BARBARA B. GOSINK, M.D., is Chief of the Ultrasound Division and Professor of Radiology at the University of California, San Diego
M. STEVEN PIVER, M.D. is Founder and Director of the Gilda Radner Familial Ovarian Cancer Registry, and Chief of Gynecologic Oncology, at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, N.Y.
Member, Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc.
Who's Who in the West, 1996-1997
Duke University Medical Center Jonquils Award for
Her Efforts in the Fight Against Cancer, 1994
Copyright (C) 1996 by Ceil Sinnex
Published by OVARIAN PLUS (TM)
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.
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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.
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