ESPN reporter Hannah Storm announced that she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The Sportscenter anchor, 61, shared on “Good Morning America” Tuesday that her doctors discovered an early form of breast cancer known as ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) after she underwent a routine mammogram, ultrasound and biopsy in November 2023.
“I was shocked. I had no risk factors. I have no breast cancer in my family. I did not have a lump. I did not have pain,” she told host Robin Roberts.
“I don’t have any genetic predisposition to breast cancer and what I came to learn is the vast majority of women who are diagnosed with breast cancer don’t have risk factors, and so, I gotta say, I was shocked, scared.”
According to the American Cancer Society, about one in five new breast cancers will be DCIS and nearly all women with it can be cured.
Since doctors were able to detect Storm’s cancer so early, she was able to have a lumpectomy — a surgical removal of a discrete portion or lump of breast tissue — which only required her to be off work for a week.
“I was able to go back to work, cover the Super Bowl, which was a real blessing,” she said.
“I’m also taking a drug called tamoxifen that blocks all the estrogen and progesterone, which apparently, my cells feed off of that. I’m taking this for the next three years.”
Although Storm initially kept her diagnosis private, she said she shared her story in hopes that it could help other women.
“I think about having daughters too and the importance of them understanding and advocating for their health and what you can do,” Storms — who shares three daughters with husband Dan Hicks — said.
“This is how you find it. You find it through getting your yearly mammograms.”
Storm added, “This is how you find out that you have breast cancer and if you find out that you have it in the earliest form, it’s so treatable. There’s so much that you can do about it.”
