Overcoming Obstacles
- The world’s best gymnast Shannon Biles is competing in the U.S Championships this weekend. We recently spoke with one of Biles’ predecessors, former gymnast Shannon Millerwho holds two gold, two silver, and three bronze Olympic medals and used her lifetime of physical and mental training to combat an even bigger journey: ovarian cancer.
- Miller, now 44, was diagnosed with "germ cell" ovarian cancer in 2011 at the age of 33. Germ cell tumors are more likely to impact a single ovary, rather than both. When a teen or young woman has been diagnosed with ovarian cancer, it's usually germ cell.
- Ovarian cancer is a tough cancer to diagnose. A trans-vaginal ultrasound and a CA-125 [blood test] are the best screening methods at the current time, according to a leading expert.
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Miller, 44, spoke with SurvivorNet about battlingand beatingovarian cancer. The admittedly reserved mother of two has had no problem speaking up about her journey, if it means she can help people become more health-conscious.
"I came from a shy background. I would hardly speak during my [gymnastics] training,” Miller told us. “But I realized, you know what, I'll go around and talk about my ovaries all day long if it really does make even one person think, 'yep, I'm going to go to the doctor. I'm going to focus on my health.' Then it is all worth it.”
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Shannon Miller’s Toughest Competition: Ovarian Cancer
Miller, who holds two gold, two silver, and three bronze Olympic medals, was diagnosed with "germ cell" ovarian cancer in 2011 at the age of 33. Germ cell tumors are more likely to impact a single ovary, rather than both, and when you hear about a teen or young woman being diagnosed with ovarian cancer, it's usually germ cell. About 90% of these cases can be cured and fertility can often be preserved.
Miller broke the record for winning the most Olympic medals of any U.S. athlete in any sport during the 1992 Olympics when she won two silver and three bronze medals. In 1996, she led the "Magnificent Seven," a group of seven record-breaking female gymnasts, to the first-ever U.S. women's team gold medal and was the first American ever to win gold for the balance beam. She has won 59 international and 49 national competition medals. In 2010, she launched her company, Shannon Miller Lifestyle, with the goal of helping women live healthfully.
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The Missouri-born athlete says that the mental and emotional lessons she learned from the sport helped her more than overcoming the physical injuries, "things like goal setting, teamwork and positive attitude, particularly during chemotherapy."
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Unfortunately, not even her grueling gymnastics preparations and recoveries prepared her for the nausea she experienced during her chemotherapy treatments. She couldn't believe how weak she felt. "Here I had swung around uneven bars for more than a decade and now I couldn't open a bottle of water,” she said, expressing how staying lightly active and making it through a five-minute walk would help her get through it.
The mom of two talked about goal-setting, and more importantly how teamwork became extremely important to her during cancer.
Related: The Importance of Second Opinions for Ovarian Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment
"I'm not sure I had really utilized that lesson all that much in my regular life outside of sport," she said. "Once I retired I don't think I thought about it that much. All of a sudden you look around and you have this incredible medical team. But it's so much more than that. Friends and family, neighbors willing to pitch in and help out at every turn for the smallest of things and the biggest of things."
Support from fans really helped her along as well.
"[I got] a letter from a lady from Texas," Miller shared. "A mom from Texas with three kids and just wrote that she had watched me and cheered for me at the Olympics, and she shared that she always got her kids to their doctors appointments but she couldn't remember the last time she went," she said. "And, I'll never forget this, she said 'but if it can happen to you it can happen to me and I'm going to make my appointment.’"
As a gymnast, the health activist said she obviously got plenty of activity in, and she was also schooled on diet and nutrition form coaches. This was the first time she had to come to terms with anything like cancer, "that'll humble you real quick," she said.
Is there Screening for Ovarian Cancer?
Despite ovarian cancer's reputation for being a devastating disease, what most people don't realize is that when it's detected early enough, it has a better than 90% cure rate. The problem is, it's not an easy disease to diagnose, so only 20% of cases are caught early on.
Dr. Beth Karlan, a gynecologic oncologist at UCLA Medical Center, spoke with SurvivorNet about this disease.
"In certain high-risk women, who have either inherited a defect in a gene called BRCA1 or 2 or other associated genes with hereditary ovarian cancer, you should undergo an ultrasound of the pelvistrans-vaginal ultrasoundand a CA-125 [blood test], because it's the best we have at the current time,” Dr. Karlan explained.
Related: The CA 125 AntigenWhy is it Important for Ovarian Cancer?
But these tests are only routinely available for women with the aforementioned family histories of cancer, inherited genetic conditions like Lynch syndrome (which predisposes people to a variety of cancers) and/or women presenting with recurring symptoms of the disease.
In fact, according to the American Cancer Society, low-risk women may be better off skipping screening if they aren't experiencing symptoms. "In studies of women at average risk of ovarian cancer, using TVUS [trans-vaginal ultrasound] and CA-125 [blood test] for screening led to more testing and sometimes more surgeries, but did not lower the number of deaths caused by ovarian cancer." And so for that reason, they don't recommend routine testing.
Related: Prioritizing Mental Health & Acceptance After an Ovarian Cancer Diagnosis
So while there's no widespread screening method currently available, researchers are working hard to find one. As Dr. Karlan says, "finding an early detection method for ovarian cancer is really like the holy grail."
Is there Screening for Ovarian Cancer?
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