Life
Ovarian Cancer and the black woman
This week the world mourns the passing of re-known environmentalist, feminist, activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Prof. Wangari Maathai (pictured). A titan she was.
Prof. Maathai fought and won many battles, however, she lost the battle to ovarian cancer.
Ovarian cancer is cancer in the ovaries, the female reproductive organs located in the pelvis. It is the most lethal of gynecologic malignancies.
Ovarian cancer causes more deaths than any other cancer of the female reproductive system. The sooner ovarian cancer is found and treated, the better a woman’s chance for recovery. But ovarian cancer is hard to detect early.
There are no early screening tests for ovarian cancer, and experts say the symptoms are often mistaken for other conditions.
In the United States, the prevalences of many ovarian cancer risk factors differ markedly between black and white women, there has been little research on how the relative contributions of risk factors may vary between racial/ethnic groups.
Black women may have lower incidence rates than white women, however, their survival rates are lower than those of white women.
Unfortunately, there has been very little research on ovarian cancer in African American women.
It is important that more information about this deadly disease is obtained with regards to its’ impact on black women.
