Don S. Dizon

The holy grail in women's oncology is early detection. This is most painfully true for ovarian cancer, where symptoms often suggest that the disease has already advanced.

I was interviewed this past week on a study to be published in the New England Journal of Medicine. This study was based on an analysis of women treated in Denmark who had undergone surgery for breast cancer in whom either isolated tumor cells were found in lymph nodes and women in whom microscopic metastatic disease was found.

Oophorectomy is a fairly routine procedure in women with cancers of the gynecologic tract; performed as part of surgical staging.