Oh, how I miss Gilda Radner, the wonderfully wacky comedienne from the original “Saturday Night Live” cast. When I watch reruns of SNL and see Radner performing her memorable characters Emily Litella, Baba Wawa, and Roseanne Roseannadanna, I laugh and get sad at the same time.

In 1989, Radner, at 42, died of ovarian cancer, an insidious form of the disease that kills too many women a year. I thought about her early this morning when I read this on the Internet:

British researchers say The Pill may help protect women from ovarian cancer, even after they stop taking the contraceptive, possibly for as long as 30 years. In fact, the longer a woman takes the pill, the greater the protection, according to the study in The Lancet, a British medical journal.

The news comes as welcomed relief to doctors and women, because there is no reliable screening test for ovarian cancer, unlike the PSA test for prostate cancer. Ovarian cancer is one of the most common types of cancer in women, with older women being most at risk and survival rates very low.

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