Alexandra Rodgers loves her body. She likes her petite, five-foot-two frame and her long, blond hair. But what Alexandra really treasures is a five-inch seam—a thin, raised line running from her belly button to her pubic bone that demarcates a division between past and present.

The scar is a trophy, proof that Alexandra beat ovarian cancer. She was 20 when she learned she was sharing her beloved body with a cyst four times the size of her ovary. For most women, this stealthy form of cancer is deadly: many are in the
final stages before they figure out something is wrong and seek help. Alexandra herself had no tip-off that a small city of cancer cells was growing in her abdomen, nor did she have a family history.

While only about one in 70 women is expected to get ovarian cancer in her lifetime, historically, more than 60 percent of those women have presented themselves to physicians in late stages, when survival rates bottom out at only about 20 percent. That makes ovarian cancer the most fatal gynecologic cancer. The frightening morbidity rate owes everything to the eerie subtlety of early symptoms—such as abdominal heaviness, bloating or pain; feeling full quickly; frequent urination, gas and nausea—which disguise themselves as the flu, a cold or even PMS

For Alexandra, June 1, 2006, dawned like any other spring day. The temperature was climbing and clouds were settling to make the Toronto skyline resemble a charcoal sketch. Alexandra had a busy day ahead: there was work, then the 20-year-old and her boyfriend would celebrate their first anniversary. She would accomplish none of it.

Seconds after waking, she fell to the floor with a crippling pain. Curled in the fetal position, she wailed like a baby as the pain cut through her abdomen like a knife stroke. With the help of a friend, Alexandra made it into emergency at her local hospital. A few hours later, still waiting in triage, the pain had subsided and Alexandra considered leaving.

“I almost got up and walked out,” she says, “but I decided, on second thought, since I had waited so long, I might as well stay.” That second thought saved Alexandra’s life. A pelvic examination and ultrasound revealed a cyst the size of a mango nestled in her abdomen.

“I was scheduled for surgery at the end of August. On July 13, the hospital called and told me they were operating on me the next day. I couldn’t decide whether I should feel relieved that they were moving so fast or afraid that they felt they needed to.”