September 30th, 2009 | 
Author: Giveaway is now closed. Comments will remain open.
September 30, 2009 means that Ovarian Cancer (and Gynecological Cancer) Awareness Month is over. Time to start planning for next year, but first, some things to think about, and even be glad of as September closes and October comes into being.
I was contacted via email by L’Oreal Paris to help make people aware of what they are doing to help support the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund – and have been doing for 12 years.
This all came about after I blogged about the L’Oreal Hope Line (1-877-OV-HOPE-1) without being contacted. The nice lady at the publicity company they are using sent me information about what L’Oreal Paris is doing to support the fight against ovarian cancer. (I didn’t ask permission to use her name, so won’t be naming her.)
The publicity company also sent me a L’Oreal Color of Hope make-up bag to use as a giveaway to help raise awareness.
Grants Given By L’Oreal Paris
As part of L’Oreal Paris’ support for ovarian cancer research over the years, they have awarded three grants to researchers working to fight existing ovarian cancer and find an early detection test.
Jonathon Berek, M.D., M.M.S. is a professor and the chair of the Department of Obstretics and Gynecology at Stanford University School of Medicine. He is also Co-Director of the Women’s Program at Stanford. His work is focused on facilitating communication among the various researches working on the vaccines and immunotherapies that are showing promise in the fight against Ovarian Cancer.
Dr. Berek’s grant title is Cooperative Ovarian Cancer Group for Immunotherapy (COGI).
Heidi Gray, M.D. is an assistant professor in the Department of Obstretrics and Gynecology at the University of Washington. She is working on finding the elusive screening test that could save thousands of women every year from hearing the words, “You have Stage 3/4 Ovarian Cancer. No, there was no way you could have known this early as the symptoms are so hard to detect and easy to think are something else.” Her research is focused on looking at immunologic markers to determine early signs of ovarian cancer.
Dr. Gray’s grant title is Identification of an Immunologic Signature of Ovarian Cancer for Use as an Early Cancer Screening.
Anil Sood, M.D. is a physician scientist and Director of Ovarian Cancer Research at the University of Texas, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. His research is focused on identfiying and controlling proteins involved in ovarian cancer that seem to influence life expectancy. This is part of the tumor target therapy research that many cancer patients hear about.
Dr. Sood’s grant is titled Novel siRNA Based Therapeutic Approaches for Ovarian Carcinoma.
I think we should all support L’Oreal Paris as they support the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund by funding these important grants!
(This is my layman’s translation of the much more technical explanations sent me found here as a graphic . If I got it wrong, please tell me and I will fix it!)
The Contest/Drawing for L’Oreal’s Color of Hope Make-up Bag
I am going to do a random drawing on the comments on this post – unless you say you don’t want to be in the drawing and comment anyway. Why would you comment anyway? Well, because as September 2009’s Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month comes to a close it is time to start thinking of how September 2010’s Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month can be more successful.
- How can we make women more aware of the symptoms? Currently there is no early warning sign that can’t be mistaken for something else.
- What types of fundraisers for ovarian cancer research and awareness would people like to see – including what would get the media’s attention? (This isn’t just about the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund. There are other missions that are just as important.)
- Who should those of us who want to raise awareness be targeting in the media? What magazines, newspapers, television shows, and web sites would reach the most women? (Publishing plans issues as much as a year in advance, so NOW is the time to start pushing those stories.)
Leave a comment with your ideas and suggestions. Don’t worry if it is the same as someone else’s suggestion, that just means it is something that needs to be looked at more closely! I have smart readers, so I know you will have ideas I would never think of without your help.
The drawing will be October 6, 2009, entries must be entered by midnight ET October 5, 2009.
Three words for you: bathroom stall doors. I have seen bathroom stall door advertising in a college where I teach; the ads are behind plexiglass sheets in flat frames adhered securely to the back of the stall door and the ads are right at eye-level. Something like “Do you have (and then list the most common symptoms in a bullet-list)? If you’ve had X or more of these symptoms for X or longer, you might want to call your GYN because these can be the symptoms of Ovarian Cancer” and then give the L’Oreal Hope Line number for if they have questions.
I personally hied myself to the doctor after reading about the symptoms here on your blog, and while I did NOT have OC, thankfully, I did have a large tumor on my ovary and had to have multiple surgeries to get myself healthy again. Woman just don’t know what to watch for and not every woman reads your blog, but we ALL have to pee sooner or later!
Maybe they could replace some of the endless Pampers and Huggies commercials that I am subjected to during daytime television with PSAs about Ovarian Cancer. And in the early evening, the PSAs could replace the drug lawsuit solicitation commercials.
I know that I personally contacted Maranda Valentine
Oncology Coordinator at St. Joseph Mercy Oakland and sent her the information on your blog on ovarian cancer. She’d sent out information via e-mail on ovarian cancer to all nursing staff just before I read your blog. With the new information obtained from your blog, she contacted L’Oreal for more information on ovarian cancer. She told me that next year she will inform hospital staff at the beginning of September and work on getting the health information out to the public. Perhaps you could contact the oncology units at local hospitals and see what they could do about spreading the word to staff and the public. Talk to WOMC’s Dick Purtan and or his daughters (on is on his radio show with him and the other reports on WXYZ TV). His wife battled ovarian cancer and they still do fundraisers for the cause. How about contacting the program “The Doctors” on channel 7 at 10 AM to do a piece about the disease? Or contacting “The Dr. Oz Program” on channel 4 at 3 PM? With your writing skills, I’d like to see you write an article for a magazine about ovarian cancer and your battle with the disease. You are a wealth of information and can give a first hand account of your discovery of the disease, diagnosis and treatment. Just for an FYI, I was wearing the teal nail polish by Sally Hanson in honor of you, when yesterday my patient’s wife asked me about it. She stated she was so happy to see that someone even thought about ovarian cancer. The disease had taken her mother’s life and she said that all the emphasis was on breast cancer and none of ovarian. She then asked me what were your symptoms and I told her along with the others that I was aware of from your blog. Her eyes got big and she told me she had some of those symptoms and she was going to call her doctor that afternoon for a check up. Amazing what bright teal nail polish can do. You may be instrumental in saving another person’s life by sharing your information with others. Bravo!!
You have some excellent questions and I think that just brainstorming and talking about the issue is a good start.
I have know several young women (30’s) who have succumbed to Ovarian CA. Heartbreaking.
To give my $0.02 on your questions…..
1. I think symptoms (subtle though they are in the early stages) should be discussed by EVERY doctor that does annual well woman exams. We talk about breast self exams and all the other “female” stuff this education should definitely be included. You are correct that the early warning signs can definitely be mistaken for many other things BUT how expensive is it to do an abdominal ultrasound to rule out something deadly vs. pat us on the head and tell us to take a laxative. One thing I have seen in healthcare time and time again is that a woman FELT something was bad wrong and her feelings were ignored. WE know our bodies and we have to be our own advocates. I can’t figure out a way to segue into this thought….. but I think we should also teach the s/sx of reproductive Cancers to teenage girls in health class. Again, we teach breast self exams…. we should also teach awareness of our bodies.
2. I can’t really think of much except the walks/runs for fundraisers. Maybe the sale of a specific flower during Ovarian Cancer awareness month? I know I have not received any direct mailings about donating, and I would so maybe more aggressiveness in that area would be helpful. Then there is the government lobbying….. we could learn much from the AIDS lobby.
3. Who should we target in the media? I would think that the “softer” journalism would be a good place to start. Kathie Lee and Hoda on the Today show, or The View would be my ideas. Do we know of any celebrities who have had Ovarian cancer? If we could get a recognizable spokesperson I think that would be a great step. I would also go with some of the talk shows, Oprah (good luck), Ellen etc.
These are just off the top of my head. I may return after giving these issues some thought….
Great post and thanks for teaming up with L’Oreal Paris for this giveaway.
To give my $0.02 on your questions…..
1. I think symptoms (subtle though they are in the early stages) should be discussed by EVERY doctor that does annual well woman exams. We talk about breast self exams and all the other “female” stuff this education should definitely be included. You are correct that the early warning signs can definitely be mistaken for many other things BUT how expensive is it to do an abdominal ultrasound to rule out something deadly vs. pat us on the head and tell us to take a laxative. One thing I have seen in healthcare time and time again is that a woman FELT something was bad wrong and her feelings were ignored. WE know our bodies and we have to be our own advocates. I can’t figure out a way to segue into this thought….. but I think we should also teach the s/sx of reproductive Cancers to teenage girls in health class. Again, we teach breast self exams…. we should also teach awareness of our bodies.
2. I can’t really think of much except the walks/runs for fundraisers. Maybe the sale of a specific flower during Ovarian Cancer awareness month? I know I have not received any direct mailings about donating, and I would so maybe more aggressiveness in that area would be helpful. Then there is the government lobbying….. we could learn much from the AIDS lobby.
3. Who should we target in the media? I would think that the “softer” journalism would be a good place to start. Kathie Lee and Hoda on the Today show, or The View would be my ideas. Do we know of any celebrities who have had Ovarian cancer? If we could get a recognizable spokesperson I think that would be a great step. I would also go with some of the talk shows, Oprah (good luck), Ellen etc.
These are just off the top of my head. I may return after giving these issues some thought….
Great post and thanks for teaming up with L’Oreal Paris for this giveaway.
I don’t have any ideas for society at large, but I am going to do my darndest to make sure my 13 and 17 year old nieces are aware of the symptoms.
Well done! I’m all for promoting an important and under-served condition. In answer to your last question, websites that target or have a large demographic female following: BlogHer; Betty Confidential; iVillage; CurrentMom; Big Tent; Fertility Authority…these come to mind first. But I also located this index of women-centric site: http://www.indexoftheweb.com/Women.htm
I think this website is great:
http://www.toprankblog.com/2006/06/25-tips-for-marketing-your-blog/
You really have to attack this from a marketing angle. Think about investing in a URL/domain name, so people can just type yourblog.com (with “your blog” obviously replaced by something relevant).
Social networking sites are also a great place to start for free marketing. Utilize Twitter and Facebook. Grassroots isn’t the worst way to get the word out!