Focusing on Survivorship in Ovarian Cancer — Brown Alpert Medical School’s Dizon on “Smart Health”

Focusing on Survivorship in Ovarian Cancer — Brown Alpert Medical School’s Dizon on “Smart Health”

Oncologist Dr. Don Dizon at the Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University appeared on “Smart Health” on GoLocal LIVE where he urged people to “know their family history” when it comes to the disease — and spoke to how his work focuses on addressing women who currently have ovarian cancer, and helping patients navigate life after, when there is a high risk of the cancer returning. 

September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month — 1 in 78 women will develop ovarian cancer in their lifetime, according to the American Cancer Society.

“The problem with ovarian cancer today, is that the ovaries are so deep in the pelvis of a woman, that until it leaves the ovaries, women are really unaware that they have the disease,” said Dizon. “One of the things we always say is to learn your family history, because that can be the biggest cue that you’re going to be at risk for developing either ovarian cancer or even breast cancer.”

“Unfortunately, woman with ovarian cancer, their risks of that cancer returning, if you’re diagnosed with anything other than the earlier stage of the disease, are as high as 80% — so I came to this field of survivorship understanding that you’re a survivor once that diagnosis is made, because from that perspective, I include women where are dealing with ovarian cancer and I hope to have them identify as survivors even if the cancer comes back,” said Dizon. 

“We did this every interesting survey on Twitter, and we asked women on social media where they see survivorship and how they see themselves in survivorship, and we found women navigate post-treatment on their own, that there aren’t resources for women with ovarian cancer — but they really want that, they want it to be relevant even after the disease comes back again,” he added. 

Dizon was appointed Director of Women's Cancers at the Lifespan Cancer Institute (LCI) in 2017 and also serves as the Director of Outpatient Hematology-Oncology Clinics and The Oncology Sexual Health First Responders Clinics at LCI and as Director of Medical Oncology at Rhode Island Hospital. He is a Professor of Medicine at Brown University.

“We can look at sexual health as a concept that can bring people together, but if unaddressed can really crate a barrier — so I think of the things that sexual health is emblematic of in survivorship is this idea that you need to not only talk to the woman, you need to talk to the partner, you might even need to talk to the family, so that everyone understands that cancer is not a one-time [thing], that even when the treatment stops, that the woman doesn’t ever ‘leave’ cancer," said Dizon.