U.S. House overwhelmingly passes Ovarian Cancer education bill
November 08, 2005

PAGO PAGO. Aumua Amata announced that yesterday the U.S. House passed a bill saying that awareness and early recognition of ovarian cancer symptoms are currently the best way to save women's lives, and ovarian cancer research should be well-funded so that a reliable screening test can be developed and a cure can be found. "This is good news," she said. "When Congress shows interest by saying that research should be well-funded, that's a big step in the right direction."

According to Amata, ovarian cancer is a serious and under-recognized threat to women's health. It is the fourth leading cause of cancer death among women living in the States and territories. This bill required two thirds majority vote for passage and not a single Member of Congress voted against it, she said.

"Ovarian cancer is very treatable when it is detected early, but the vast majority of cases are not diagnosed until the cancer has spread beyond the ovaries," Amata explained.

Only 19 percent of ovarian cancer cases in the United States are diagnosed in the early stages. In cases where ovarian cancer is detected before it has spread beyond the ovaries, more than 94 percent of women will survive longer than five years. Many people do not know that ovarian cancer often presents with persistent symptoms such as abdominal pressure, bloating, discomfort, nausea, indigestion, constipation, diarrhea, frequent urination, abnormal bleeding, unusual fatigue, unexplained weight loss or gain, and shortness of breath. Many people do not know that certain women are at higher risk for developing ovarian cancer if they have risk factors, including increasing age, a personal or family history of ovarian, breast, or colon cancer, and not having had children.

Amata noted that raising public awareness of ovarian cancer by educating doctors and women about the disease will save lives. Ovarian cancer research is needed to develop early detection tools, prevention methods, enhanced therapies, and a cure.

"There are still large gaps in knowledge on key scientific aspects of the disease," she concluded, "and there is still no reliable and easy-to-administer screening test for ovarian cancer." November is ovarian cancer awareness month.

Aumua Amata also praised her national breast cancer coalition's network, "whose incredible October advocacy resulted in the increase by 50% of the number of U.S. Senate cosponsors on the Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Act(from 38 to 58) and the growth by 25% in the House (from 129 to 162). We are quickly coming to end of the first session of the 109th Congress. Let's use November to get our networks focused on maximizing efforts to get additional voting cosponsors in the House," she concluded.