Congressman Sander Levin

Women's Health

Every hour, approximately 10 women in the U.S. are diagnosed with a gynecologic cancer like ovarian, cervical, or uterine cancer. Each year, 26,000 of our mothers, sisters, daughters, and friends dies of one of these terrible diseases.

This is a tragedy. What makes it still more tragic is 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. Ovarian cancer, the deadliest of the gynecologic cancers, has a 90 percent survival rate if detected in Stage One and only a 20 percent survival rate if detected in Stage Three or Four. Only 25-30 percent of cases are currently diagnosed before State Three. To learn about your risk, click here.

Last year, my colleagues and I were able to pass the Gynecologic Cancer Education and Awareness Act into law. This legislation, commonly referred to as Johanna’s Law, will create a federal campaign to increase early detection of these deadly cancers, and, when possible, help women reduce their risk of ever contracting them.

The passage of this bill represented a real victory for everyone who has been fighting to get the facts out about gynecologic cancers. However, while passage is important, securing adequate funding is equally important.

I recently initiated an effort to encourage my colleagues to join me in supporting $9 million in funding for the Center for Disease Control's Gynecologic Cancer and Education and Awareness programs in the upcoming 2008 Health spending bill (insert link to dear colleague). Along with forty-seven of my colleagues, I wrote a letter to the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor - Health and Human Services in order to urge for this important funding.

As a result of this effort, the House health spending bill includes the full $9 million requested. The next step is making sure the $9 million is included in the final health spending bill agreed to by both the House and the Senate. I will continue my efforts to ensure this funding as the appropriations process moves forward.