Lois Capps: “Every hour, approximately 10 women in the United States are diagnosed with a gynecologic cancer such as ovarian…”

“Every hour, approximately 10 women in the United States are diagnosed with a gynecologic cancer such as ovarian, cervical, and uterine cancers. Each year, we lose over 26,000 of our mothers, our sisters, our daughters, and our friends to one of these terrible cancers. This is a tragedy. Research shows that many of those deaths could be prevented if more women knew the risk factors and recognized the early symptoms of gynecologic cancers so that they could discuss them with their doctors. Some cancers have a dramatic difference in likely survival when they are diagnosed early. Ovarian cancer, as my colleague just referred to, for example, has just about a threefold difference in survivability between the early time it can be diagnosed and the later time it is often diagnosed. In 2007, Johanna's Law, the Gynecologic Cancer Education and Awareness Act, was enacted. This important legislation created a gynecologic cancer education and awareness campaign which is administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, to raise awareness of the five main types of gynecologic cancer: cervical, ovarian, uterine, vaginal, and vulvar.”