Private MD News

Breast cancer is common, even among the famous

Category: Breast

With reverence to Breast Cancer Awareness Month, The Huffington Post recently published a feature on noteworthy entertainers who, at one point in their lives, received affirmative blood testing for breast tumors.

Proving that women of all ages could potentially be among the more than 200,000 people who the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say could receive blood testing confirming breast tumors each year, The Huffington Post reports that sitcom actresses Christina Applegate and Maura Tierney have both battled breast cancer. Tierney is under 50 years old, while Applegate has not yet turned 40.

Other famous breast cancer patients listed by the news source include aspiring First Lady Ann Romney, funny-woman Wanda Sykes, Grammy award-winner Olivia Newton-John and British songstress Kylie Minogue.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that unfamiliar lumps found in breasts, swelling, irritation, dimpling, flaky skin, pain in the nipple area and nipple discharge are all signs that women should visit their doctors for an examination. According to the CDC, more than 40,000 women a year succumb to breast cancer.