Journalist Joan Lunden Discusses Her Breast Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment

Roy Firestone interviews longtime journalist, author and television host Joan Lunden on her recent breast cancer diagnosis and treatment.

Lunden announced her diagnosis of breast cancer in June and has been public about her cancer experience. She tells Firestone that she has been overwhelmed with people's support since sharing her journey. "The fact that these people take the time every day to just write a little message or pray for you, stay strong, or share their tips or advice. It has been a very big part of my healing and just keeping me strong," she says.

Lunden recounts how the cancer was first identified—not during a routine mammogram, but by ultrasound. Lunden shares a conversation she had in a past interview with the well-known breast cancer surgeon, Susan M. Love, on dense breast tissue and the need for additional screening for certain women who have dense breasts. For the past few years, Lunden said, she has been getting both screening procedures because past mammograms showed the journalist had dense breast tissue.

"To me, one of my great passions is to make women more aware of their bodies, their breasts and the fact that they need to know whether or not they have dense breast tissue," she says.

Lunden also shares how she made the decision to get a second opinion, results of her genetic testing, and how she made her final treatment choice.

"We decided to go with this latest regimen, which seemed to us to be the one that would maybe give me my best chances for success and my best chances to not have a reccurrence of the disease."

Making the final decision was tough, she said, especially with different recommendations from two world renowned medical professionals, but she ultimately went with a newer treatment regimen. In addition to the newer regimen, she also discussed with her doctor about having surgery after chemotherapy. She has since completed both chemotherapy and surgery, and has begun radiation treatments.

CURE magazine will feature Lunden's story in the February 2015 issue. You can subscribe to CURE for free at curetoday.com/subscribe.