Annie’s Mailbox: Learn more about ovarian cancer

Dear Annie: September is National Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month as proclaimed by the U.S. Senate and President Obama, whose mother battled the disease. Ovarian cancer is the most deadly of all gynecologic cancers, affecting one in 72 women. It is lethal and insidious – hard to detect, difficult to treat and with no reliable screening test. A Pap test does not detect ovarian cancer. Women without ovaries can develop the disease. Seventy percent of women die within five years of being diagnosed. However, if detected in its early stages, there is a 92 percent chance of a full recovery.

Ovarian cancer does have symptoms. The NormaLeah Ovarian Cancer Foundation utilizes the easy-to-remember BEAT acronym: Bloating, Eating less while feeling fuller, Abdominal and/or back pain, Trouble with your bladder and bowels.

Our foundation honors the memory of two sisters whose lives were cut short by the disease: Norma Yecies Shagrin and Leah Yecies Hantman. Norma, my mother, carried the BRCA gene mutation, which I inherited from her. The BRCA mutation is responsible for up to 10 percent of all incidences of breast and ovarian cancer. It is also closely linked to other cancers.

Our mission is to create public awareness, promote early detection and support research for ovarian cancer. I invite your readers to visit our website at www.normaleah foundation.org to learn more about the disease and how they can win the battle against it. – Jodie Shagrin Kavensky, Founder, NormaLeah Ovarian Cancer Foundation, Rock Island, Illinois

Dear MS. Kavensky: Thank you for giving us the opportunity to heighten awareness of this disease. We hope the women in our reading audience, and the men who love them, will check out your website.