Shall I start with eating?

After I posted a response about cancer, tests and diets on another thread, in another forum, Elena and I discussed some of the points raised, and she felt they should be posted where more people would benefit from them. I hope I can say this in a way that you will use, without too much or too little detail. If I leave out anything you want to know, please feel free to ask. I will answer whatever I can, and help you find the rest of the answers. I have ovarian cancer, an incurable form of cancer of the reproductive organs. I was diagnosed on December 2, 2000, and had radical surgery for metastasized cancer on December 4, 2000. Almost everything that could harbor a cancer cell was involved, and was removed. I underwent chemotherapy for a total of 6 treatments, and my lab reports showed the cancer to be in remission as early as February, 2001. During the early days following my diagnosis, friends provided me with a mountain of literature, tapes, all manner of information. Among those things was a book I didn't read for several months. Here, I need to say that I looked it up and found that it can be purchased at Barnes & Noble, as can many other books on this subject. I would urge anyone with more than a passing interest in this subject to read several of them. The one I read might not be the best. I learned a lot from it, however, and that is part of what I will pass on here. It was titled "What to Eat If You Have Cancer", and included a section in the back about how to eat to prevent cancer. Many of the fruits and vegetables already being highly praised by nutritionists are included throughout, and their common claim to fame is that they fight free radicals. Without going into a lot of technicality here, I will just say that free radicals set you up for cancer cells to gain a toehold. In one of his books, another cancer survivor named Richard Block, formerly of H&R Block, stated that everyone gets cancer cells a couple of times a year, but most people have a good defense system built in, and their bodies rout the cells before they get a chance to set up housekeeping. Sort of like an anti-virus software. Or he said words that I boiled down to that. When our diets fail to include foods that fight "free radicals", it's as if we let someone (the free radicals) hold open the door and invite the cancer cells to move in and multiply. Then our defenses are outnumbered, and the bully cells take over more and more space, until they cripple one organ after another. By regularly eating foods that fight these self-appointed hosts in our bodies, we make it difficult for them to even open the door. So the trouble making cancer cells get the boot before they even set their bags down. Not welcome in this inn. The book I cited explains what foods are best, and does it in a way that makes you want to eat all of them every day. Who knew blueberries and strawberries and grapes and broccoli and greens and tomatoes and grapeseed oil and many other delicious treats were so good for us? If you eat the foods listed, you will feel like you are cheating, but you will feel good about it. It is actually good advice for anyone, unless they really want cancer and other problems. I still have to keep an eye on my body chemicals, going to the lab every three months now so my potassium, magnesium, and other boring minerals and blood components can be scrutinized. I developed sticky blood, which I blame on the transfusions, along with blaming them for this curly hair that belongs to someone else but grew on my bald head. That is critical, (the sticky blood, not the curly hair) as I have pulmonary emboli, or blood clots, in both lungs and several other fun sites, and they can kill me! And I get a test while I'm at the lab to be sure I am still in remission, meaning no measurable cancer cell activity is present. In the case of ovarian cancer, this test is called a CA-125, and if the result is under 35, it's good. Over that, people at the cancer center get nervous and start ordering scans and sticks and probes and all manner of indignities. If I had known to have such a test before diagnosis, my result would have probably been up around 10,000 or 15,000, instead of the desirable 35-. But to know to order such a test, one would likely be an oncologist-gynocologist. Your regular OB-GYN isn't likely to order it. It's not part of your regular annual physical exam. It is expensive, and I don't know of an insurance company that will pay for it in a routine physical. But if they did, thousands of the 14,000 women who die each year of ovarian cancer would be diagnosed and treated before the disease metastasized and reached the life threatening stage. This is THE screening test for ovarian cancer! Because it is not used often enough, probably due to cost and lack of information, ovarian cancer goes undetected or misdiagnosed and is usually stage 3 or later when it is finally found. By then, too many organs and systems are involved, and many times, areas too critical to treat aggressively are included, and the costly and painful treatments merely buy a little time. If one was lucky enough to have a doctor who had experienced the symptoms in other patients and recognized the similarity, this test could be used effectively as early as the first few months, when the cancer was still confined to one ovary. Simple surgery, maybe radiation or chemo or both, a few treatments and then a new test, repeated periodically to be sure no new cells were active, would save lives, funds and resources. This cancer occurs in about 25,000 women annually, and at least half of them will not beat it, because it is too late. The silent killer, it's called. Masquerading as a dozen other things, it sneaks up on even a watchful person. People like me, who don't go to the doctor until they can't tie their own shoes, have no way of catching it early. Doctors will even discourage you if you ask for the test! With no other women in my family ever having any cancer except the smokers and their lung cancers, I had no reason to look for it. I almost waited too long, but if I had gone earlier, the chances are very good it still would have been missed, because the doctor would not be aware of the connection between the diverse symptoms. Oh, and age is not a factor. It occurs in teens and it occurs in octogenarians. Size is probably not a factor. (But don't fret, chemo will melt those pounds right off, along with your every hair. That's the hard way to lose it.) It is thought that if you take birth control for more than three years, or have a number of children, or do anything that interrupts ovulation, you have less chance of getting it. So we can assume women who ovulate are at risk. Most do, at least some. (My seen pregnancies failed me.) Other than those factors, it is totally undiscriminating. Like Elena, I think the CA 125 should be included in a routine physical. You can pay for a lot of those before you get anywhere close to what one surgery cost me, and then there are the ongoing costs that will probably be for the rest of my life. In conclusion, I can only say, research foods and their importance in cancer prevention, and look into the symptoms common to ovarian cancer. Eat according to the best advice you can find, pay attention to your body, insist on answers from your health care professionals. There is a lot of information available, and there are support groups who would welcome your interest if you just want to learn what to look for from the survivors. But since "only" 25,000 women will be diagnosed this year, against six figures for other types, the funding isn't weighted in our favor. Information won't be dropped on your lap, you will have to seek it. I apologize for the length of this thread, but would you believe I have left out a lot? Good luck, eat defensively!