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Ananda Lewis is opening up about her cancer battle.
The former MTV VJ and “Teen Summit” host, 51, revealed in an interview with CNN that she has been diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer.
Lewis said her cancer was at stage 3 when she was diagnosed in 2019 after she found a lump in her breast, and after going against her doctors’ recommendation to get a double mastectomy, she learned last year it had metastasized into stage 4.
“It was the first time I ever had a conversation with death,” she told CNN. “I felt like this is how it ends. I don’t get afraid of things. I was just like, ‘Fudge, man. I really thought I had this.’ I was frustrated. I was a little angry at myself.”
Stage 4 breast cancer occurs when the cancer has spread to other areas of the body. “There isn’t a cure, but thanks to newer treatments, more people with metastatic breast cancer are living longer than ever before,” the Cleveland Clinic notes.
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Lewis initially revealed her stage 3 breast cancer diagnosis in an emotional video on Instagram in October 2020, the beginning of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. She said at the time she had been “fighting to get cancer out of my body for almost two years,” and she urged followers not to neglect their mammograms like she had.
Task forcesays this is when women should begin breast cancer screening, get mammograms
“For a really long time, I have refused mammograms, and that was a mistake,” she said, adding, “If I had done the mammograms from the time they were recommended, when I turned 40, they would have caught the tumor in my breast years before I caught it through my own self-exam, and they would have caught it at a place where it was more manageable.”
Lewis told CNN a scan last year showed the cancer had spread “up my spine, through my hips, almost everywhere but my brain.” In an interview with The New York Times on Wednesday, she said she is now taking medications that are “working beautifully” for her.
In a conversation on YouTube, Lewis reiterated her “biggest mistake” was not staying on top of early detection. But she said that a year since she received her stage 4 diagnosis, she is feeling “fantastic” today. “I’m going to live and want to thrive,” she said.
Numerous celebrities have shared breast cancer diagnoses this year, including Olivia Munn and “The Office” star Jenna Fischer. Fischer said in an Instagram post that she was diagnosed with stage 1 triple-positive breast cancer but is now cancer free after completing surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. In her announcement, the actress urged followers not to skip their mammograms.
“My tumor was so small it could not be felt on a physical exam,” Fischer wrote. “If I had waited six months longer, things could have been much worse. It could have spread.”
