The month of September is National Ovarian Cancer Awareness month.
As most people know, this is something very close to my heart. My gramma died in November 2001 from OC. I've said before that she is the person who inspired me to be a nurse. I spent many weekends when she was ill visiting her, wishing I could do more. The way I do more now is by helping take care of other people.
I wanted to include a few statistics regarding OC:
- Each year, approximately 20,000 American women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer and about 15,000 women die of the disease. In 2008, it is estimated that 21,650 women in the United States will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer and 15,520 women will die from the disease.
- Approximately 75 percent of ovarian cancer cases are diagnosed at an advanced stage after the cancer has spread beyond the ovary.
- Approximately 174,236 women living in the United States have or have a history of ovarian cancer.
- Ovarian cancer has remained the fifth leading cause of cancer-related death among U.S. women since 1999.
For more information, please visit the OC website.
