Comedienne Wanda Sykes has opened up for the first time about her secret breast cancer battle.
The Curb Your Enthusiasm star revealed all about her health crisis in a taped interview with pal Ellen DeGeneres, which will air on her daytime talk show in the U.S. on Monday (26Sep11).
Sykes told the host she underwent a double mastectomy after the cancer was detected during breast reduction surgery in February (11).
She reveals, "I was having a breast reduction... I had real big boobs, and I just got tired of knocking over stuff. Every time I eat... My back was sore, so it was time to have a reduction. It wasn't until after the reduction that, in the lab work, the pathology, that they found that I had DCIS (ductal carcinoma in situ) in my left breast.
"I was very, very lucky, because DCIS is basically stage zero cancer. So I was very lucky. But cancer is cancer. I had the choice of, you can go back every three months and get it checked. Have a mammogram, MRI every three months just to see what it's doing. But I'm not good at keeping on top of stuff. I'm sure I'm overdue for an oil change and a teeth cleaning already. I have a lot of breast cancer history on my mother's side of the family, which I didn't know about."
Sykes then opted to go for a bilateral mastectomy in August (11) because she didn't want to take any chances.
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