Breast cancer awareness: Early detection 'saved my life,' Jackie DeAngelis says (2024)

FOX Business correspondent Jackie DeAngelis, who was diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer in June, said on Thursday that she believes early detection saved her life.

DeAngelis shared her journey on "Mornings with Maria" during Breast Cancer Awareness Month, stressing that "screenings are super important."

About 42,000 women in the U.S. die each year from breast cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

DeAngelis said she was diagnosed on June 17 after a routine mammogram.

"It just kind ofblindsided me and the first callthat I made was to my mother," she said.

"No mom wants to hear thattheir child has cancer," DeAngelis’ mother told FOX Business.

DeAngelis’ doctors said her masses were nearly invisible and described them as corn flakes crushed in a bag like "grains of sand." The FBN host revealed she didn’t have any history of breast cancer in her family and didn’t have the BRCA gene.

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DeAngelis said she was presented with two options, "a lumpectomy, which would come with radiation andchemotherapy and constantsurveillance after" or a mastectomy.DeAngelis decided to have a double mastectomy.

"Doing the doublemastectomy was difficult, it was a hardersurgery, but I was able to avoidthe follow-up treatments, which Ithought was really important," she told host Maria Bartiromo.

"I’ve never felt such fear in mylife," she went on to say, explaining what it was like during the three weeks before her surgery.

DeAngelis said the "surgery went well" and returned to work only 13 days later. She is scheduled for a second procedure on Monday.

"The reconstruction is a piece ofthis," she explained.

"It’s been about 16 weeks since the surgery in July and they put tissue expanders in yourbreast."

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"They took all the skin off, they want fresh skin to grow, they want toexpand it and make room for thatreconstruction so it’s beenpainful," she continued.

"It hasn’t really been pleasant.It feels like I have co*ke cansin my chest right now so I’mlooking forward to getting themout on Monday."

DeAngelis told Bartiromo she felt compelled to share her story "because Ithink there’s a lot out therethat other women don’t know."

She noted that maintaining a healthy lifestyle is important, saying she has retooled her life by "trying to think aboutsome of the choices that Imake, some of the products thatI use, things that I put onmy skin [and] food that I ingestto just try to be a little bithealthier."

DeAngelis also pointed out that her colleagues, FOX Business anchor and reporter Gerri Willis and "Outnumbered" co-host and former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany were "pillars of support."

Willis was first diagnosed with stage 3 lobular breast cancer in 2016. She described the strain as a "weird kind" that’s hard to pick up with a mammogram – but after showing physical signs, Willis got tested and came back positive.

McEnany was never diagnosed with breast cancer but ran an 84% risk of developing the disease since eight women in her family had already been diagnosed, some passing away in their late 20s.

After testing positive and keeping 10 years of surveillance on the matter, including multiple scares, McEnany decided to receive a double mastectomy as well.

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During the coronavirus pandemic, screenings for breast cancer plummeted.

"There’ssomething that people can learnhere and I want them to learnfrom my journey that number one,the fear is there of course,but this is not a death sentenceanymore and you can overcome itbecause I did," DeAngelis said on Thursday.

"No. 2, one in eight womenwill get breast cancer.I never thought it could be me.I didn’t think I had healthproblems or a reason to worry, but it happens and it could berandom and it could happen toyou."

"I urgepeople, if they’ve been puttingthis off, go in there, get thescreening.It’s important," she added.

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FOX Business’ Angelica Stabile and Fox News’ Kayla Rivas contributed to this report.