Episode 69: Ovarian Cancer Treatment Advances & Genetics, With Dave O'Malley & Leigha Senter The James Cancer-Free World Podcast

“We used to call ovarian cancer the disease that whispers and now we say, let’s break that silence,” said David O’Malley, MD, director of the OSUCCC – James Division of Gynecologic Cancer. In Episode 69 of the James Cancer-Free World Podcast, O’Malley and Leigha Senter, an OSUCCC – James genetics counselor, help break the silence and talk about advances in the treatment of this type of cancer, and how more widespread genetic testing will save lives. O'Malley said their have been great advances in the past 10 years and now ovarian cancer can be treated as a chronic disease in more and more cases. Gentic testing of patients with ovarian cancer, Senter explained, can determine who has BRCA, an inherited genetic mutations that increases a woman's risk for breast cancer - and ovarian cancer, which is harder to detect than breast cancer and often presents in the later stages.