This is a guest opinion column

The Norma Livingston Ovarian Cancer Foundation and other organizations like ours provide support for the women undergoing treatment for ovarian cancer, helping meet their financial, emotional and medical needs. We also support research so that one day there might be a cure for this deadly disease that kills roughly 13,000 women every year. Until there is a cure, we need to rely on our next best defense: early detection.

New advances in cancer screening technology hold tremendous progress for detecting ovarian cancer early – but we’ll only be able to realize that progress if Congress follows the lead of Congresswoman Terri Sewell, who is fighting to ensure these tests are widely accessible through Medicare.

There is no effective screening test for ovarian cancer. Ovarian cancer is a particularly insidious and lethal disease because it is so difficult to detect, and once it is discovered, it is often too late for treatment to be effective. The American Cancer Society reports that only one of every five ovarian cancers is detected at an early stage.

The next generation of screening technologies offers new hope. With just a single draw of a patient’s blood, multi-cancer early detection (MCED) tests may be able to help detect dozens of types of cancer at earlier stages. Several large-scale clinical trials show promising results on the accuracy of these tests. It’s an opportunity to find and treat cancers at an earlier stage that, today, are being detected too late.

We must ensure these tests are accessible to those who need them most – which is why a pathway to Medicare coverage of these tests is absolutely essential. Statistics show that women in their mid-60s are the population subset most vulnerable to ovarian cancer. Their ability to access these tools is critical, but without action from Congress, they could face significant delay.

Currently, Medicare cannot offer timely coverage for new breakthroughs. Representative Sewell is working to change this and has championed the Nancy Gardner Sewell Medicare Multi-Cancer Early Detection Screening Coverage Act. Named for the Congresswoman’s mother who died three years ago from pancreatic cancer – another type of cancer without an early screening test – this bill would create a rapid pathway for Medicare coverage of MCED tests once the FDA gives them the green light. It’s not an overstatement to say this has the potential to revolutionize cancer detection by detecting more cancers at an early treatable stage, saving countless lives.

Congress needs to act on Congresswoman Sewell’s bill – and quickly. It has overwhelming bipartisan support in both the U.S. House and Senate and is endorsed by hundreds of health care and patient advocacy organizations throughout the country. In an age of intense partisan disagreement on so many issues, coming together to fight cancer is one goal on which we can all agree.

We’ve witnessed too many women who we’ve come to see as our sisters lose their lives to ovarian cancer that grew undetected and undiagnosed. We have the opportunity to see more of these women beat cancer and live longer, fulfilling lives. Congress needs to pass this bill to put a new weapon in the war against cancer in our hands.

Ashley Thompson is the executive director of the Norma Livingston Ovarian Cancer Foundation. For more information, visit https://cureovariancancer.org.