Growing push to remove fallopian tubes, lower ovarian cancer risk | STAT

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Eric Boodman focuses on narrative features, exploring the startling ways that science and medicine affect people’s lives. You can reach Eric on Signal at eboodman.88. Subscribe or log in to STAT+ to unlock email alerts To Rebecca Stone, the single most important fact about ovarian cancer is that it’s usually a misnomer. The most common kind — responsible for 70% of cases and 90% of deaths — often has its silent beginnings not in the ovary, but in the fallopian tube. This isn’t just an interesting factoid; as a gynecologic oncologist at Johns Hopkins, Stone sees it as a reason to evangelize. There’s no way to screen for so-called ovarian cancer, no colonoscopy, mammogram, or Pap smear equivalent. It’s typically found late, once it’s already spread. The treatments are middling at best. Among the best tools is surgical prevention: If someone doesn’t want more kids, and is considering another abdominal surgery, a surgeon can offer to take the tubes out. Opportunistic salpingectomy, it’s ca

To Rebecca Stone, the single most important fact about ovarian cancer is that it’s usually a misnomer. The most common kind — responsible for 70% of cases and 90% of deaths — often has its silent beginnings not in the ovary, but in the fallopian tube. This isn’t just an interesting factoid; as a gynecologic oncologist at Johns Hopkins, Stone sees it as a reason to evangelize. There’s no way to screen for so-called ovarian cancer, no colonoscopy, mammogram, or Pap smear equivalent. It’s typically found late, once it’s already spread. The treatments are middling at best. Among the best tools…

Growing push to remove fallopian tubes, lower ovarian cancer risk | STAT

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