The National Ovarian Cancer Coaltion (NOCC) announced the premiere of its national television and radio public service announcement (PSA) to educate women about the signs and symptoms of ovarian cancer, the number one killer among women’s reproductive cancers. Eva LaRue, star of CSI:Miami, is featured in the PSA which encourages women to start talking about ovarian cancer with their friends, families and doctors. The PSA will begin airing in September, which is National Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month.

This cause has personal significance to LaRue. She lost both her grandmother and her great-grandmother to ovarian cancer, which puts her at increased risk for the disease.

“Ovarian cancer is taking a devastating toll on thousands of women each year and too many are diagnosed too late. We need to start talking about ovarian cancer now in order to change that trend,” said LaRue. “I am honored to help NOCC continue its public education efforts to ‘break the silence’ in order to improve the odds for women with this disease today and in the future.”

Earlier this year NOCC launched “Break the Silence,” a national educational program to facilitate greater awareness and dialogue about the disease after a national survey revealed only 15 percent of women are familiar with the signs of the disease and 82 percent have never talked to their doctors about it. Yet, more than 20,000 women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer this year and more than 15,000 will die from the disease.

If caught in the early stages, the five-year survival rate for ovarian cancer is 90 percent. However, 75 percent of the women diagnosed are in the advanced stages, when the prognosis is poor.

NOCC’s “Break the Silence” campaign has reached nearly 10 million people to date with educational messages and tools for beginning a dialogue about the disease.

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