Washington, D.C. - Rep. Howard Berman, together with Rep. Ralph M. Hall (TX), introduced the Ovarian Cancer Biomarker Research Act of 2007 on September 27.   Rep. Berman noted that he was presenting the legislation in observance of Gynecologic Cancer Awareness Month.

According to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), there will be 22,430 new cases of ovarian cancer and 15,280 deaths from ovarian cancer in the United States in 2007.  Ovarian cancer ranks fifth in cancer deaths among women and causes more deaths than any other cancer of the female reproductive system.
 
"Early detection is the key to preventing deaths from this disease," said Berman.  "In cases where ovarian cancer is detected before it has spread beyond the ovaries, more than 93 percent of women survive longer than five years but when diagnosed in the advanced stages, the chance of five-year survival drops to about 30 percent," he said.

Currently, early stage diagnosis occurs in only 20 percent of ovarian cancer cases in the U.S.  Ovarian cancer mortality could be reduced dramatically if a majority of the women affected by ovarian cancer were diagnosed at an early stage.  Unfortunately, there is no widely accepted or effective screening test for ovarian cancer currently available and the disease is difficult to identify because symptoms are easily misdiagnosed. 

The Ovarian Cancer Biomarker Research Act of 2007 would authorize the NCI to make grants to public or nonprofit entities to establish research centers focused on ovarian cancer biomarkers.  "Biomarkers are biochemical features within the body that can be used to measure the progress of a disease and predict the effects of treatment," explained Berman.  "This Act also establishes a national clinical trial that will enroll at-risk women in a study to determine the clinical utility of using these validated ovarian cancer biomarkers," he noted.

The need for increased research and funding for ovarian cancer is critical to improving survivorship rates from this disease.  Between FY2003 and FY2006 funding for the NCI increased by $211 million, but gynecologic cancer research funding decreased.  With the lifetime risk of ovarian cancer at one out of every 69 women, we must increase the resources to fight this disease. 

This bill is supported by the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance, and the American College of Surgeons.

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