Gilda Radner Familial
Ovarian Cancer Registry
celebrates 25th anniversary
Newswise — The Gilda Radner
Familial Ovarian Cancer Registry, established in 1981 to track
families who have included at least two first degree relatives
diagnosed with ovarian cancer, is celebrating its 25th anniversary.
M. Steven Piver, MD, former Chairman of the Department of
Gynecologic Oncology at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, initiated the
Registry in an attempt to document the number of cases of familial
ovarian cancer in the United States.
“When I began my career, it was
unknown that ovarian cancer could be an inherited disease. However,
in 1977, I met a family who had five women in three generations with
ovarian cancer,” said Dr. Piver. “In 1978, I met a second family
with a similar familial medical history. I became suspicious that
this might be a trend we needed to track.”
Within two years the Registry had
enrolled 94 families in which multiple first-degree relatives were
affected by ovarian cancer. In 1988, Dr. Piver was a medical
consultant to Gilda Radner, the comedic actress who died of ovarian
cancer in 1989. Subsequent media coverage encouraged many more
families to contact the Registry and by the end of that year, over
450 families with familial ovarian cancer had been enrolled. Due to
her efforts to raise awareness of her disease, the Registry was
renamed the Gilda Radner Familial Ovarian Cancer Registry in 1990.
“We now have over 1,800 families with familial ovarian cancer
registered in the database,” said Cathy Fahey, Project Director,
Gilda Radner Familial Ovarian Cancer Registry. “We continue to
enroll an average of 50 families each year from all over the world.”
Some other highlights over the
past 25 years:
• Observations from Dr. Piver and members of the Registry and
information gathered from participants in the Registry helped to
identify the link between BRCA1 and BRCA2 and ovarian cancer in
1994.
• In 1996, Dr. Piver and Gilda Radner’s husband, Gene Wilder,
published “Gilda’s Disease: Sharing Personal Experiences and a
Medical Perspective on Ovarian Cancer.”
• Researchers associated with the Registry have published over two
dozen research articles in major medical journals. One recent
breakthrough from the British Journal of Cancer (2004), “Oral
Contraceptive Use and Ovarian Cancer Risk Among Carriers of BRCA1 or
BRCA2 Mutations” suggests reduced ovarian cancer risk is associated
with long-term oral contraceptive use among carriers of BRCA1 or
BRCA2 mutations.
For more information, please
visit
http://www.ovariancancer.com or call
1-800-OVARIAN. This hotline includes cancer information specialists
trained to answer questions about ovarian cancer and a HELPLINE made
up of volunteers who are all women at high risk for ovarian cancer.
“As the Registry continues its research to identify new genes
associated with familial ovarian cancer, we believe that we will be
able to identify better methods for detecting ovarian cancer and for
preventing the disease in future generations,” concluded Dr. Piver.
Roswell Park Cancer
Institute, founded in 1898, is the nation’s first cancer research,
treatment and education center, and is the only National Cancer
Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center in Upstate New
York. RPCI is a member of the prestigious National Comprehensive
Cancer Network, an alliance of the nation’s leading cancer centers.
For more information, visit the RPCI website at
http://www.roswellpark.org, call
1-877-ASK-RPCI (1-877-275-7724) or e-mail
askrpci@roswellpark
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celebrates 25th anniversary