dr. david huntsman, canada research chair in molecular and genomic pathology and professor in the departments of pathology and laboratory medicine and obstetrics and gynecology at ubc, says.
“the challenge with [screening] ovarian cancer [is] it comes in most, or maybe even all, cases from the fallopian tube, either directly or indirectly. and by the time it’s growing on the ovary, it’s likely already spread. so there isn’t a window of opportunity where there’s a tumour large enough to detect yet has not spread so you can intervene in a meaningful way.”
motherhood, the recurrence of a granular cell tumour, and a reason to fight
granular cell tumours are rare and usually not cancerous, but for starla fiddler, now 36, it was.
after diagnosis, she underwent surgery to remove her ovaries and fallopian tubes, then started chemotherapy. she was happily cancer-free for five years, until one day at the gym she says she felt a kind of ripple across her midsection.
“i had a feeling something was up so i saw my oncologist who did a scan and found more growth. it was my first recurrence.”
she opted not to restart chemotherapy because of how hard it was on her body, and instead had more surgery to remove the cancer in her midsection.
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