When Pam Scarpino was diagnosed with stage IIIC high-grade serous ovarian cancer in October 2007, her local oncologist told her she was really good at giving her patients five years to live.

“That didn’t sit well with my gut,” she says.

So Pam turned to the internet for advice.

“MD Anderson kept coming up as one of the top places to go for ovarian cancer,” she says.

But the single mother of two teenage daughters...