Today show lifestyle contributor Jill Martin has revealed she has breast cancer and urged viewers to seek out genetic testing to detect early-stage cancers.
“I have been diagnosed with breast cancer. And it feels like someone else telling this story. Six weeks ago, it happened really fast,” an emotional Martin said during an appearance on the NBC News morning show Monday.
She said the diagnosis came six weeks after she received scans to get preventative surgery, as breast cancer runs in her family. But after receiving genetic testing for the BRCA gene — the gene linked to a higher chance of developing breast cancer — and any mutations, her breast cancer was detected.
“That test saved my life. Had I not gotten the test, I wouldn’t have got the scans and we would be telling a very different story,” Martin told co-stars Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb, the latter who has previously spoken about her ownbreast cancer diagnosis and surgery. “So I feel super grateful to be here, to be able to say talk to your doctors and go get tested,” Martin added.
At Martin’s side was Dr. Elisa Port, chief breast cancer surgeon at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. She told Today viewers that, while a mammogram remains key to detecting breast cancer and saving lives, it isn’t perfect and genetic testing for the BRCA gene and other mutations is vital to also protecting against early cancer detection, especially among high-risk patients.
Miller was keen to convey to viewers that the BRCA gene isn’t restricted to women, and that men should also be genetically tested for the BRCA gene and possible mutations. “Let me be clear: My mother had breast cancer. She tested negative for the BRCA gene. They said, has your father been tested? I said, breast cancer does not run in my father’s family. They said get tested anyways,” Miller explained.
She did get tested and both she and her father tested positive for the BRCA gene. “I always associated this with something women got, and so many people I’ve spoken to said they didn’t know this was something men should be tested for,” said Miller added of men similarly being at risk of certain cancers from BRCA gene mutations.
Miller said she will soon undergo preventative surgery to drastically reduce her chance of a recurrence of cancer to only 1 percent.
Source: Hollywood
