Clea Shearer revealed she was recently diagnosed with an “aggressive” form of breast cancer. The Home Edit star said she felt two lumps while performing a self-exam just after her 40th birthday and found she had stage 1 invasive breast cancer after a biopsy. Shearer will undergo a double mastectomy this week: “I’m a fighter. If anyone can crush cancer, it’s me.”
Clea Shearer is open about her health. In a new interview with People, The Home Edit star revealed that she had recently been diagnosed with an “aggressive” form of breast cancer. Just before her diagnosis, Shearer said she felt two lumps in her breast during a self-breast exam. She immediately called her doctor, who ordered a biopsy.
“I went for a mammogram and then it turned into an ultrasound and the ultrasound came back as ‘suspicious and concerning,’ leading to a triple emergency biopsy, that same day,” she said. After a biopsy, the results showed she had stage 1 invasive breast cancer, an aggressive form of breast cancer.
Invasive breast carcinoma, also known as invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC), occurs when abnormal cells form in the milk ducts and spread to surrounding breast tissue. According to the American Cancer Association (ACS), it is the most common form of breast cancer, accounting for 80% of cases. In stage 1 IDC, cancer has spread to other areas of breast tissue, but not to surrounding lymph nodes.
This content is imported from Instagram. You may be able to find the same content in a different format, or you can find more information on their website.
Shearer said that because she was 40 and she has no family history of breast cancer, she didn’t think she would be diagnosed with breast cancer. (Although those with a family history are at risk of developing breast cancer, most women with breast cancer have no family history, the ACS says.)
“It’s crazy to look in the mirror and tell yourself that right now, physically standing there, you’re a person who has cancer. It’s crazy to say it out loud,” she said of receiving her diagnosis. “It was really scary and really, really, really emotional.”
The mother of two will undergo a double mastectomy this week and will then assess with her doctor whether she needs chemotherapy or further treatment. Shearer admitted she was most concerned about revealing the news to her young children, but she is confident in her ability to get well soon.
“I’m a fighter. If anyone can crush cancer, it’s me,” she said. “I’m literally scared of cancer and I’ve got this. I’m going to be pretty cranky in the first weeks of recovery, but that doesn’t mean I’ll feel any less determined to absolutely nail it and put cancer in my rearview mirror.”
This content is imported from Instagram. You may be able to find the same content in a different format, or you can find more information on their website.
Shearer encourages women everywhere to self-check for lumps. The ACS recommends that women age 40 and older begin annual breast cancer screenings and mammograms with a doctor. However, ACS cautions that this should be in addition to, not in lieu of, annual mammograms for people at average risk of developing breast cancer.
“If I can target my cancer, [I want to] make people understand that if you don’t feel something right, you should say something. You may not get a response from your doctor that you like. They can enforce it and say you don’t need a test or we’ll get you in at your next physical. But we know our bodies best,” Shearer said.
“Self-examination is the best thing you can do and it costs nothing. Self-examination is what saved me. I think I would be in a very different scenario now if I hadn’t pushed this myself.”
This content is created and maintained by a third party and imported to this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may find more information about this and similar content at piano.io
Comments are closed.