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INSIDE
Attacking Migraines ..
Journalist honors sister lost to
ovarian cancer by educating millions
•
through articles and legislation.
At left: Sheryl Silver with older sister Johanna Eisenberg Gordon.
Above: Sheryl Silver with Rep. Sander Levin July 2 at Gilda's Club in Royal Oak
announcing the Johanna's Law legislation.
SHARON LUCKERMAN
Staffriter
a
, ohanna Eisenberg Gordon was Sheryl Silver's big sister. Almost nine years
older, Johanna guided her through life's stages, becoming best friend and
confidant. Sheryl remembers the December afternoon a few years ago they
spent in Florida, looking out over the water at the sunset.
"We hugged each other and said how lucky we were to be sisters," says former
Detroiter Silver, now 52, of Florida.
Little did Sheryl know that for the next 3 1/2 years, Johanna would be waging a
valiant, but losing battling for her life.
For several weeks before going to Florida, Johanna suffered heartburn, constipa-
tion and bloating. Tolerating the discomfort at first, she finally called a gastroenterol-
ogist. A new patient, she didn't get an appointment for another month. But return-
ing home to Bloomfield Hills from Florida, the pain persisted, and she called her
gynecologist, who had her come in immediately.
Though a very healthy woman, just shy of 55, who exercised regularly, visited her
gynecologist every year and had no family history of cancer, Johanna was diagnosed
with Stage III ovarian cancer — an advanced disease with a low rate of survival.
Risk factors and symptoms are known for ovarian cancer, which is treatable when
detected early, but Johanna, along with thousands of women and health profession-
als, had no idea what these were. This widespread lack of information may have cost
Johanna her life.
Silver, a freelance columnist who writes about employment in newspapers such as
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2003
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the L.A. Times, the Chicago Tribune and the Washington Post, became pro-active dur-
ing this time, learning as much as she could about the disease and searching for a
way to save her sister.
Her research and dedication led to a bill soon to be introduced in Congress by
Rep. Sander Levin, D-Royal Oak, called Johanna's Law: the Gynecologic Cancer
Education and Awareness Act. If passed, this legislation would provide funds to edu-
cate women and all health care professionals about ovarian, cervical and endometrial
cancers.
Silver also edited two four-page advertising supplements in the Washington Post
and the New York Times on "Gynecologic Cancer: What Every Woman Needs to
Know," to reach as many people as she could about this disease.
Once considered "the silent killer," ovarian cancer is far from silent, Silver discov-
ered.
Two recent breakthrough studies by the University of Washing-ton Medical Center
in Seattle and the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City con-
firmed that women have detectable symptoms as early as Stage I, when there's an
80-90 percent five-year survival rate if detected, she says. That figure drops precipi-
tously to under 20 percent if the cancer is discovered at a later stage, after the cancer
has metastasized.
The not-so-quiet symptoms, as many women learn too late, are easily misdiag-
nosed. Persistent heartburn, abdominal bloating, difficulty eating, unexplained
weight gain, constipation and severe fatigue are the most common symptoms, Silver
says. Risk factors include Ashkenazic (European) Jewish heritage, age exceeding 50