Ovarian cancer sly, deadly

Six months ago, Dr. Sue Sommer-Kresse thought she was the healthiest woman in Charleston. At 62, she worked out every morning and maintained a hectic schedule as senior vice president for strategic planning at the College of Charleston.

Then last March, during what she thought was a routine hernia procedure, the doctors found suspicious tissue. It turned out to be Stage III peritoneal ovarian cancer.

"Within 10 days I returned to surgery," Sommer-Kresse said. "I left without my uterus, ovaries, gall bladder, appendix and belly button. After that came a series of six aggressive chemotherapy treatments."

The good news from this frightening story is that Sommer-Kresse, wife of former Cougar basketball coach John Kresse, is now cancer-free.

The bad news is that 21,000 women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer this year and, unfortunately, 16,000 will die from the disease.

Not blue collar

Sommer-Kresse's doctor, Scott Jennings, a gynecologic oncologist, says ovarian cancer is a particularly nasty disease because its symptoms are vague and it usually isn't discovered until the later stages.

He lists bloating, urinary pressure and back pain as signs that there could be a problem. But most women will say they feel those symptoms every month of their life, in various degrees.

"Women need to pay attention to their bodies," Jennings said. "Unfortunately, getting seen by a sympathetic health care provider for persistent abdominal symptoms is not always as easy as you'd like it to be."

Jennings says women over 65 are more at risk, especially those with a family history and from the higher socioeconomic classes.

"It's not a blue-collar disease," he said. "Poor women get cervical cancer. Rich women get ovarian cancer. Jewish women are also at a higher risk. We don't know why."

Birth control pills

What we do know is there's no screening test for ovarian cancer.

"Women should not think a PAP smear will find ovarian cancer," Jennings said. "It will not."

So what's a woman to do?

Jennings said taking birth control pills can reduce the chance of ovarian cancer by 50 percent.

Also, removal of the ovaries before menopause has a 98 percent success rate.

Sommer-Kresse had everything on her side -- early detection, resources, a loving family and a large group of friends. Others are not so lucky.

To that end, the Center for Women, directed by Jennet Robinson Alterman, created Lowcountry Women With Wings (www.lowcountrywomenwithwings.org), a program designed to educate women and help them deal with the legal, financial and emotional aspects of this disease.

Sue Sommer-Kresse considers herself lucky. But it will take more than luck to break the silence of this insidious disease.

Reach Ken Burger at kburger@postandcourier.com or 937-5598. Read previous columns by Ken Burger here.