Since NBC began re-airing old episodes of Saturday Night Live in prime time on Saturdays, it’s brought a stark reminder of the tragedy of Gilda Radner’s untimely passing. Known best for her offbeat wit, diatribes in character as Rosanne Roseannadanna and misguided stands by another character, Emily Litella, that always ended with a correction and a sheepish “Never mind,” it’s been 25 years since the comedienne succumbed to ovarian cancer.
Arguably, she’s still the face of ovarian cancer.
Though around 4,000 American women die each year from the invasive, late-stage form of the cancer, it’s still Radner that comes to mind “” even more than her friend, fellow comedic actress Madeline Kahn, who died a decade later from the same disease. More than 12,400 U.S. women are newly diagnosed each year, according to the American Cancer Society.
“I’m a member of an elite club that I’d rather not belong to,” Radner once quipped, just months before her 1989 passing.
And 25 years after Radner’s passing, there’s still so much we haven’t been able to learn about ovarian cancer, which often doesn’t present noticeable symptoms and goes undetected until it spreads and becomes less likely to be successfully treated.
Here’s what is known: Ovarian cancer starts in the ovaries, the two organs on each side of the uterus that produce eggs as well as hormones, like estrogen and progesterone. It can occur at any age, but is most common in women in their 50s. Most ovarian cancers form in the epithelial tissues, a thin layer that covers the outside of the ovaries. That accounts for more than 90 percent of ovarian cancers.
What isn’t exactly knows is a specific cause. A small number of cases can be attributed to an inherited gene mutation that is also linked to breast and colon cancers. Long-term estrogen hormone replacement therapy has been linked to ovarian cancer “” as have been fertility treatments and use of intrauterine devices “” but present in only small numbers.
Other cancer culprits like smoking and a family history of cancer play roles, too, but the medical community is still searching for more a widespread red flag.
With the stakes so high once it spreads, doctors suggest women be more sensitive to the seemingly benign signs that may signal the early stages of the disease, when treatment is vastly more successful.
Those symptoms include any combination of:
- Abdominal discomfort: Bloating or swelling are easy to chalk up to your cycle, but may be sending you a signal that something is seriously wrong
- Appetite changes: Quickly feeling full when eating has been reported by many patients
- Changes in bathroom habits: Recurring constipation or a frequent need to urinate are common
- Unexplained weight loss
- Fatigue: Radner was filming “Haunted Honeymoon,” which has also been in its Halloween rotation lately, when she couldn’t shake a feeling of malaise. It was her first sign something was wrong, and she sought medical care immediately. Unfortunately, doctors misdiagnosed her for months.
You can help doctors come to the right diagnosis if you have any combination of these symptoms. Be smart “” tell your doctor. Tell him or her if you have a family history of cancer. Give voice to your concerns. Do it for yourself. Do it for your family. Do it for Gilda, too.
