Ovarian Cancer Treatment and Genetics

“We used to call ovarian cancer the disease that whispers, and now we say, ‘Let’s break that silence,’” says David O’Malley, MD, director of the Division of Gynecologic Oncology at Ohio State and member of the Translational Therapeutics Program at the OSUCCC – James. In Episode 69 of The James Cancer-Free World Podcast, O’Malley and Leigha Senter, an OSUCCC – James genetics counselor, help break the silence by talking about advances in treating this disease and how more widespread genetic testing will save lives. O'Malley says advances of the past 10 years have enabled more and more cases of ovarian cancer to be treated as a chronic disease. Genetic testing of patients with ovarian cancer, Senter adds, can determine who has inherited BRCA gene mutations that increase a woman's risk for breast cancer and for ovarian cancer, which is harder to detect than breast cancer and often is diagnosed in its later stages.

Listen to The James Cancer-Free World Podcast on Apple, Google Play, SoundCloud and Stitcher.