Ovarian cancer survivor says fallopian tube removal "saved my life"

Doctors and other organizations say there's something women can do to help reduce their chances of developing ovarian cancer by 80%. 

Fallopian tube removal is a procedure that's not widely known, but they are working to spread awareness. 

Carla Murray had a preventive double mastectomy years ago. 

"I do not ever think about getting breast cancer. It's out of my mind. I thought I'm done," Murray said.

On a podcast on the Memorial Sloan Kettering website, Murray learned that it's possible to prevent ovarian cancer by having their fallopian tubes removed. In 2024, during a minor pelvic surgery for a benign condition, she asked her doctor about removing her fallopian tubes.

Days later, her doctor called back, informing her she had cancer in one of her tubes.

Murray said she had an MRI a few months before the surgery.

"Of my pelvis. My fallopian tubes and ovaries were in that scan. Nothing showed up. I didn't have symptoms. It was such a shock," Murray said. "I was staged at 3A. It had already spread into my abdomen, and so I had my omentum, cervix and uterus and ovaries removed."

"This is a disease that has no symptoms when it begins and has no screening tests," Memorial Sloan Kettering gynecologic oncologist Dr. Kara Long said. "Prevention is all we have."

Long was one of the people who participated in that podcast that Murray heard.

"The problem is patients don't know about this. Doctors, in many cases, still don't know about this," Long said. "The most common type of ovarian cancer, the kind that accounts for about 80%, 70-80% of all ovarian cancer, actually starts in the end of the fallopian tube."

According to an article published in JAMA in February, there was a nearly 80% reduced risk for serious ovarian cancers when fallopian tubes were removed. Long says the procedure is recommended for people at average risk already undergoing another pelvic procedure.

A study is being done at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center offering patients having a non-GYN operation to watch an educational video about it. And if they're interested?

"During their non-GYN operation, we remove their fallopian tubes as a preventative step," Long said. "Being able to prevent a terrible disease with a procedure that takes only minutes and has very little risk when added to another procedure is a miracle to us."

Murray, a mother of three, underwent six rounds of chemotherapy, finishing in March 2025 with no current evidence of the disease. She tells everyone she can about the option, spreading awareness - even while in line at the grocery store.

"It's one thing, I think, to hear that it can prevent ovarian cancer. It does - it works. You know, I'm here," Murray said. "I believe that it saved my life. I believe that ... I'm gonna be around a long time."