New Hope

[SimplyStar]

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole, along with Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), yesterday introduced legislation to fund research and prevention efforts in the fight against ovarian cancer, which ranks fifth in cancer deaths among women and causes more deaths than any other cancer of the female reproductive system.  There is no widely accepted or effective screening test for ovarian cancer currently available, and it is difficult to diagnose because symptoms are easily confused with other diseases.

The Ovarian Cancer Biomarker Research Act of 2008 would authorize the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to make grants to public or nonprofit entities to establish research centers focused on ovarian cancer biomarkers.  Biomarkers are biochemical features within the body that may be used to determine the presence and extent of a disease and can help predict response to therapy and ultimate prognosis.  This legislation would also establish a national clinical trial that would enroll at-risk women in a study to determine the effectiveness of ovarian cancer biomarkers.

“Unlike common cancers such as breast, cervical, and prostate cancers, ovarian cancer – the most common gynecological cancer – has no biomarker,” said Dole.  “This bill would help establish research centers focused on finding an ovarian cancer biomarker, which will help detect this disease in more women at an earlier stage and help save lives.”

According to the NCI, there were approximately 22,430 new cases of ovarian cancer and 15,280 deaths from ovarian cancer in the United States in 2007.  

Detecting ovarian cancer early is the key to preventing deaths from this disease, but currently only 20 percent of ovarian cancer cases in the U.S. are diagnosed in the early stage.  In cases where detection occurs before the cancer has spread beyond the ovaries, more than 93 percent of women survive longer than five years.  When diagnosed in the advanced stages, however, the chance of five-year survival drops to about 30 percent.

Over four years, the bill would provide $100 million for NCI research grants and $20 million for the national clinical trial.  

[SimplyStar]

As with all bills  you can lend support by writing to your Congressional leaders in Washington and tell them you want them to support this bill in the House and the Senate.   Google congress.org    put in the info they need to give you the email address of your representatives and senators, there is a directory to use.  If the Bill has a number assigned to it , you can look that up and put that in too.  Make your reason for support personal by letting them know  what  passing this bill will mean to you or those you advocate for.  Some you will get answers from and some you won't, I get answers from both of my Senators but the House is about 50%. This bill should be bi-partisian supported.  Good Luck  this could be a good "start" in funding that we so need right now.

[junamgen]

Thank you for letting us know.  Is there any button somewhere we can click to give them our support?  just a thought.   Hanging in there all sisters on the forum and we already can see the bean of the light in front of us.

Peace and love

jun

[crecco]

  
Slowly but surely we are getting there. And every step no matter how big or small brings us that much closer.  This is definately a big step. Thanks for telling us about it.  
                                Chris