A simple surgery was performed to reduce the risk of blood cancer. Here is the reason why this is likely not to know – but you must

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I woke up from surgery, with three small cracks in my stomach and huge peace of mind. I have just removed laparoscopic fallout tubes, because they are the best – and perhaps only – to defend against Ovarian cancerWhich, though rare, are the most fatal women’s cancer there.

There is no way to discover ovarian cancer (common misunderstanding is that StainingBut this is CErvical Cancer). This is largely due to something relatively recently discovered: ovarian cancer, about 80 % of the time, in Fallopian tubes, which cannot be easily accessible or biopsy. Therefore, cancer is not found until it spreads outside the tubes, so, usually reached a later stage and is difficult to treat, at treatment rates of up to 15 %.

Cancer and pests cannot be detected before cancer through blood tests.

I had no idea about any of this until 2023, when I Write Made ovarian cancer research alliance (OCRA) Comprehensive recommendations: That all women are tested genetically to know the risk of developing the disease, and that all women, regardless of the risk factor, are considered so -called opportunism – the preventive removal of the ivan tubes if they are already performing abdominal surgery already.

It was believed that the strategy – published by the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology Since 2015 – was believed to reduce the risk of ovarian cancer by up to 60 %. It was adopted as a wide recommendation after its headquarters in the United Kingdom Clinical Follow up on 200,000 women for more than 20 years and found that examination and awareness of symptoms did not save lives.

your Survivor from breast cancerThe idea of ​​ovarian cancer that may be suspended in my fallopian tubes was caused. So when I had the opportunity to remove them during the last simple abdominal surgery, I seized it.

The recovery from anesthesia-besides pain in the location of the incision and the uncomfortable bloating from the gas that was pumped in my stomach so that I could see it on its way-it decreased for me for about a week, while it was waiting for the internal recovery away from the gym for a month. But now I am unheard of my decision.

This is particularly true in light of the major new results of Vancouver, British Columbia, which started a general campaign about the removal of preventive hardness in 2010 and continues about 80,000 people – Half who chose the procedure and half who have not done so – since then. the resultsIt was announced in March 2024 at a meeting of the American Cancer Research Association and again at a recent annual meeting of the Women’s Oncology Association, it was great: that the installation eradication reduces the risk of ovarian cancer by 80 %.

“There is very little in medicine that makes you 80 % reduction in risk,” says Lead Study Gillian Hanley, Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of British Columbia. “It’s great.”

Why don’t you know more women about it?

Efforts to raise the level of opportunism

Dr. Rebecca Stone, Oncology in Medicine John Hopkins, is a pioneer in an attempt to remove the word about preventing ovarian cancer – was diagnosed in about 20,000 Americans annually and killed more than 12,000. Seeing many patients died something that kept the surgeon awake at night.

It started to make opportunistic eradication its task from 2023, when the results of the United Kingdom pushed organizations such as Ocra to the headlines with new recommendations.

“When all of it came out, you like, oh, great. Praise be to God. “But I was like,” We are not yet ready, “says Stone luck.

This is because there was no infrastructure about making hardening al-Qaeda-there are no educational materials for women to consider while waiting in the gynecological office, there is no awareness among surgeons other than diseases in the field of gynecology (and even some surgeons of gynecology) about providing the procedure, and not even any bills symbols that make the possible insurance coverage of the procedure.

Almost at the same time, Stone was asked to join the meeting of the Scientific Consultative Council Cancer penetrationCooperative effort between senior researchers and doctors to prevent and treat the most bloody types of cancer. Someone asked her if she knew how to treat ovarian cancer.

“I was like, believe me, I was trying. Sometimes we are lucky, but most of the time I bury my patients,” she says. “Then I said, but we know how to prevent it.” Even the most important cancer minds have not heard of calling for the effectiveness of casting pouring.

This call led to the creation of a new initiative through cancer, Ovarian cancer interception, This aims to improve the discovery of the pre -tube of the tube and expand the eradication of reconciliation as a tool for prevention within the general population. Stone has already succeeded in working with diseases and prevention control centers to create specific bills for the procedure, and is now preparing to launch an optical optical cancer campaign with gynecological surgeon in Memorial Salon.

A group of women stands together at a medical conference.
Members of ovarian cancer objection (Dr. Rebecca Stone occupies the third place from the right) in a summit through the summit of cancer in 2024.
With permission to penetrate cancer

“Remember when quitting smoking was a strategy to prevent cancer?

“This is a regular problem that will take a real cultural change within the medical community and beyond in its solution,” adds the president of Ocra and CEO Odera Mora about slow adoption to eradicate hardness. “We know that it is not widely adopted as it can be.”

In fact, there are still barriers to voltage – including how to bring the issue with allergies in some colored societies, which bear the historic burden of the United States Forced sterilization; Convincing some surgeons that there is sufficient evidence behind this, because all of this until Vancouver depends on historical data; Also, the idea of ​​surgical protection itself, which can be outside.

But there is another surgical prevention that was adopted as a rule, fast -indicated Stone. “It is called colonoscopy, and the risk of colonoscopy is much higher,” she says, including the possibility of bowel hole. “Then, guess what? You have to do everything again in five or 10 years.” She says that hardening is one and one, and it is “much more to save costs” in the long run.

In addition, Hanley notes, “Of course, we do not suggest that every person has the fallopian tubes needs to go and remove surgically. This will never be the recommendation. It is a surgical intervention, and surgery is not without danger.” But she sees the “exciting” approach, “for many years, we have not had much cancer prevention that did not focus on the lifestyle-grammar around diet, exercise, environmental exposure to cancer, and things that are a challenge to change.”

Is it suitable for removing young people for you?

Anyone has finished having children or not planning to have children who are already resorting to other abdominal surgery – substance removal, gallbladder removal, and uterine eradication, for example – a candidate to eradicate opportunism.

“What we really say is that if you are already performing a kind of surgery, due to some other benign diseases that treat it, the surgeon is already present, we have a really convincing evidence that adding this to another procedure does not change your risk at all compared to what you will actually risk with surgery,” says Hanley.

If you do not perform another surgery and want to remove your fallopian tubes anyway, you can choose to do this as a way to sterilization (instead of the bonp), which is technically.

Women in High riskStone Stone says: “It is less than 1 % who have a genetic mutation like BRCA1 or BRCA 2, which raises the risk of ovarian cancer from 1 % to 5 % -” and adds that they may also consider ovarian removal – when throwing ovaries – depends on their age.

While the long-term risks to eradicate hardness, if any, are unknown, there are no short-term risks, because the fallopian tubes do not serve any known purpose after reproduction-as it is against the ovaries, which still produces important hormones, most likely from menopause, she says.

I chose to keep the ovary. But these decisions, of course, are very personal. I didn’t think I would have been a person to perform an optional surgery in the first place, but the statistics convinced me.

For Stone, she says she spent long hours in the operating room in an attempt to save patients “with this terrible disease” to give up awareness.

“I will spend every minute of my remaining life to get this information there, and reach the largest possible number of people,” she says.

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This story was originally shown on Fortune.com



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