15 years ago, when the Marsha Rivkin Center was first conceived, there were few research organizations dedicated to finding a solution to ovarian cancer. Ovarian cancer, while being the deadliest gynecological cancer was and still is greatly overshadowed in the research community by other more pervasive cancers, such as breast cancer.

 
As such, the standard treatment and mortality rate for ovarian cancer has remained essentially unchanged in the past 50 years. And a truly effective and inexpensive early detection test has yet to be developed (a test similar to mammography for breast cancer or the Pap smear for cervical cancer).

 
The Rivkin Center’s founder, Dr. Saul Rivkin, M.D., faced these daunting statistics on a very personal level, not only in treating countless women as a medical oncologist, but in 1993 he lost his wife to ovarian cancer.

 
In honor of his wife and his five daughters, he created the Marsha Rivkin Center in 1996 to advance research focused solely on ovarian cancer.

 
We run because when caught in its earliest stages, survival rates for women with ovarian cancer can be as high as 90 percent.

 
We run because the long-term disease-free survival rate for advanced ovarian cancer is only 10%.

 
We run because, although ovarian cancer comprises 3% of all women’s cancers, ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of women’s cancer deaths.

 
We run because no single institution is capable of discovering a cure for ovarian cancer on its own. It will take the greater scientific community of exceptional researchers, working together to eradicate this disease.

 
We run because we support ovarian cancer research in honor of our wives, mothers, sisters, and daughters.