| |
University of Hawai'i |
(808) 956-8856 Telephone |
For Immediate Release: |
October 14, 1999 |
Contact: Kathryn Nelson, director, Development Health Sciences, phone
956-3712
|
Victim of ovarian cancer donates $469,054 to Cancer Research Center of Hawaii
|
The Cancer Research Center of Hawai'i received $469,054 from the estate of long-time Hawai'i resident Anneliese Lermann for the research of ovarian cancer. Doctors suspect Lermann had the disease one year before it was detected. She died at age 72.
"She didn't want others to suffer like she did," says Bill Baker, a longtime friend of Lermann.
Center director Carl-Wilhelm Vogel, who announced the donation, says it will be used immediately to upgrade one of the center's labs.
"Further research is necessary to discover new, more efficient and less toxic drugs for the treatment and management of ovarian cancer that will enhance women's survival and quality of life," Vogel says.
If the cancer is diagnosed and treated early, the five-year survival rate is 95 percent. But only 25 percent of cases involving this "silent disease" are detected at an early stage because it lacks obvious symptoms before it has already developed.
Although ovarian cancer accounts for only 4 percent of all cancers among women in the nation, it causes more deaths than any other cancer of the female reproductive system. In 1999 about 14,500 women will die of the disease, while about 25,200 will be newly diagnosed.
Baker said Lermann lived a frugal life. She never received a formal education, but she made her mark in Hawaii's hospitality industry as executive housekeeper for the Alexander Young Hotel and later for Island Holidays Hotels. Lermann began working as a housekeeper in 1949 after immigrating from Germany and received many professional certificates of accomplishment.
For more information on ovarian cancer, call the Center Information Service
of Hawai'i at 1-800-4-CANCER.
