It's a great honor, really, because I think to be honored by your peers, and particularly knowledgeable
peers that are medically committed, is very special. And, also because I think you realize
that they know the challenges of screening. They know the imperfections of screening.
And, they know that it isn't perfect, and that there are problems with it.
I believe that at least in some small way this validates what we have tried to do, and that is improve
early detection of a very, very serious disease.
We've probably provided free screening to over 50,000 women, mostly from Kentucky.
And actually, the survival rate of women in our Ovarian Cancer Screening Program who get ovarian
cancer is about double that of women that didn't have screening. It's a very difficult
disease to screen for. The symptoms that it produces, even with advanced disease,
are very nonspecific, and that's why, really, women don't sense anything is wrong.
They don't come in until something's really wrong.
I think what we've done in terms of growing the research, we've tried to advance our algorithm
and it's sort of based on the understanding that an ovarian tumor and changes in ovarian
size is a dynamic process. And, we now know, because of this screening program, that certain
ovarian cysts, for example, are always benign. We never knew that before the screening. So,
now, when we see those, we're able to say, no, we won't operate on those. If we are able
to take a picture of an ovary today, and then, in four weeks take another picture of it,
if this is a malignant ovarian tumor, generally speaking, it's growing, and it's looking more
complex and more threatening, in a way, with time. We're constantly trying to improve our
algorithm with repeat studies, so that we're able to predict risk of malignancy more accurately.
I think where we are in screening, is we're not saying that ovarian cancer screening should
be adopted nationally out of a research setting. But, what we are saying is, more research
needs to be done on it. And that's where the University of Kentucky, you know, in my view,
has been a leader.
If you can detect an ovarian cancer at stage one, through early detection and screening,
the five-year survival rate for those women; 90 percent. Whereas if you wait till the patient
has stage 3c or 4 disease, the ultimate cure rate is only about 10 percent.
I think the most fulfilling part of the research is just seeing women that have been detected
who knew absolutely nothing was wrong with them. And, they really had a potentially fatal
disease, and then we were able to treat it, and now they're fine.
To me, it's all about the lives of people that have been really altered for the better by the
really altered for the better by the screening program.