Submitted By Linda Tobias With September marking ovarian cancer awareness month, a Waseca woman battling ovarian cancer is urging women to be on guard against a “silent killer;’ the fifth leading cause of cancer-related deaths among women, which all too often goes unnoticed until it is too late. Kim joined the Schaap Sanitation team this year on her one-year anniversary of diagnosis. It was the first time Kim had experienced relay. Kim is a co worker of mine who works at our MNRAAA Mankato office. I have had the pleasure of walking with Kim on her journey during the bad as well as the good times. Kim is currently doing maintenance infusions every 3 weeks as a means to continue to support her system. Kim’s relay experience was very meaningful to her as she marked her one year diagnosis. Her favorite part was all the luminaries in the Hope Garden and on the track.
Last year, lifelong Waseca resident Kim Maas was among the more than 300,000 women who are diagnosed each year with ovarian cancer. Over the last year, she’s struggled through a tough series of chemotherapy and immunotherapy treatments and surgery after a large tumor was first found on her ovary and then later her spleen after chemotherapy.
Kim said that she’s often struggled to find support groups for women battling ovarian cancer in the area. In comparison to other more frequently discussed types of cancer, especially breast cancer, she said that awareness of ovarian cancer is generally low. There are other areas of support to help women and caregivers when a woman is diagnosed, such as caregiver support groups, cancer support groups, therapy, prayer groups, and Social Workers offered by health insurance providers.
While ovarian cancer may be perceived as a less common cancer, scientists have struggled to produce effective treatments, tests or even come to a consensus on the gene mutation which appears to cause ovarian can¬cer, leaving it among the most deadly forms of cancer.
One source of hope is that if ovarian cancer is caught early while it is still localized, the five year survival rate sits at north of 90%. If the cancer is not caught until it reaches Stage III or Stage IV, only 15-30% of women survive for five years. However, unlike other forms of cancer such as prostate cancer, there is no reliable, routine screening test for ovarian cancer. Moreover, the symptoms of ovarian cancer can seem relatively benign - perhaps some constipation, fatigue, difficulty breathing, weight loss, loss of appetite, or feelings of bloating. As a result, by the time that women realize they should get the imaging tests needed to pick up on the disease, it has often advanced to a later stage, leaving them facing months of brutally difficult chemotherapy and an uncertain at best prospect of survival.
Sometimes, the symptoms of ovarian cancer can be subtle enough that even medical professionals may not pick up on them. That’s what happened to Kim - when she complained of shortness of breath, a symptom of advanced ovarian cancer, she and medical professionals wrongly attributed it to asthma and prescribed her steroids. It took five months for her to be correctly diagnosed. Kim’s message is “If something isn’t right don’t hesitate, go get it checked out.” “If you are not satisfied with the treatment plan/plans presented, do your homework and be an advocate for yourself also.”
The American Cancer Society (ACS) is tackling this challenge through groundbreaking research, education, and patient support. ACS is currently funding 59 ovarian cancer research projects totaling more than $31 million. These studies target earlier detection, better understanding of how ovarian cancer develops, and new treatments such as nanoparticle drug delivery and precision therapies. Because there is no reliable screening test.
Research supported by ACS is making an impact close to home through the work of Dr. Pilar de la Puente at Sanford Research in Sioux Falls.
• She recently received a $792,000 ACS ResearcHERS Scholar Grant to identify biomarker panels that could enable earlier diagnosis and predict chemotherapy resistance.
• Her lab creates 3D models of the tumor environment to test treatments in conditions that closely mimic real tumors.
Researchers hope they are closer than ever to lifesaving breakthroughs. Just last month, researchers from the University of Manchester and the University of Colorado released a study showing a simple blood test developed by a Denverbased startup could detect early stage ovarian cancer with about a 90% accuracy rate.
For now, the FDA maintains that no screening on the market is currently sensitive enough to reliably screen for ovarian can-cer. In lieu of such a test, the Minnesota Ovarian Cancer Alliance’s (MOCA)’.s Executive Director Mary Uran urged women to seek medical help if they start noticing symptoms that may be linked to ovarian cancer, even if it might seem benign.
