Locally-Inspired Gynecologic Cancer Education Bill Passes 100 Co-Sponsor Mark in U.S. House

(Washington, D.C) – Rep. Sander Levin (D-Royal Oak) joined with Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas) in announcing that over a 100 Members of the House of Representatives from 30 states have signed on as cosponsors of Johanna’s Law: The Gynecologic Cancer Education and Awareness Act. Support for the bill has grown steadily both in and out of Congress since introduced last November.

The bill has also been endorsed by 16 national organizations representing doctors, nurses, cancer patients and survivors, and their families. This list includes: American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, American Nurses Association, Society of Gynecologic Oncologists, and Gilda’s Club Worldwide.

"The bill’s broad-based support signals what an important, commonsense step this is for us to take to protect women’s lives, said Rep. Sander Levin. "Every where I go I hear stories similar to the one which inspired this legislation of those that have lost a love one to a cancer that was not detected in time."

The bill is named for Johanna Silver Gordon, a health-conscious public school teacher who died of ovarian cancer in 2000. Johanna’s story was all too common – her early symptoms were dismissed or mis-classified, and by the time her cancer was diagnosed, it was in a late, hard to treat stage. Her sister, Sheryl Silver, has made it a personal crusade to help other women avoid Johanna’s fate.

Johanna’s Law would create a federal public education campaign to increase awareness of risk factors and early warning signs of deadly gynecologic cancers like ovarian, cervical, and uterine cancer. Detecting gynecologic cancer early is particularly important and effective because gynecologic cancer is highly treatable in early stages and generally fatal in later stages. For ovarian cancer, the most deadly of the gynecologic cancers, the five-year survival rate for women whose cancer is detected in Stage 1 is 90 percent. In Stage 2, the survival rate is still 80 percent. But if the cancer proceeds to Stage 3 or 4, the survival rate drops dramatically, to 20 percent or less.

The bill passes the 100 mark at the same time a new study has been published in the Journal of American Medicine concluding that most woman with ovarian cancer have early symptoms that are being missed.

Please visit Rep. Levin’s website http://www.house.gov/levin/health_johanna.html for more information on Johanna’s Law and gynecologic cancers.

Contact: Hilarie Chambers or Morna Miller at 202-225-4961

###