Gilda's disease

by M. Steven Piver

Gilda Radner, the popular star of "Saturday Night Live", died of ovarian cancer on May 20, 1989. When "Fighting Ovarian Cancer - Doctors Don't Know Who's at Risk, or Why" appeared in the Washington Post ten days later, the media had finally let ovarian cancer out of the closet. It could strike any woman, including a famous comedienne who meant so much to so many. Following the publication in the New York Times of medical writer Larry Altman's article "Research Links Diet and Infertility Factors to Ovarian Cancer," Gilda's husband, Gene Wilder, wrote to the author to ask some pointed questions. Altman urged him to contact Dr. M. Steven Piver at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York. Wilder and Piver met over the phone and immediately recognized their shared common desire. From that time, they have worked together to communicate to the general public what is now known about ovarian cancer. When Dr. Piver decided to write Gilda's Disease, he asked Wilder to help him by sh