“Boy Meets World” star Danielle Fishel revealed Monday that she has been diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer.
“I was recently diagnosed with DCIS, which stands for ductal carcinoma in situ, a form of breast cancer,” she said at the top the latest episode from her podcast “Pod Meets World”. “It’s very, very, very early. Technically it is phase zero.”
‘I’m doing well. I’m having surgery to remove it. I’m going to have follow-up treatment,” added Fishel, who played Topanga Lawrence on the hit ’90s sitcom.
DCIS is an early, non-invasive form of breast cancer that affects the cells of the milk ducts in the breast. Johns Hopkins Medicine. It may show up on a mammogram, but usually does not cause any symptoms.
Patients who seek timely treatment and diagnosis have excellent prognoses. However, if left untreated, the cancer can develop can become invasive and spread elsewhere in the body.
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Fishel, 43, told listeners that she originally wanted to tell only a select few people about her diagnosis. But upon reflection, she realized how much there is to gain from cancer patients and survivors sharing their experiences.
“The only reason I got this cancer when it was stage zero is because the day I got my text that my annual mammogram was due, I made the appointment,” she said, noting that as a working mother of two children “it would be so easy to say, ‘I don’t have time for that.’ I went to my mammogram last year. Last year things went well for me. I don’t have to go. ”
“I wanted to share this because I hope it will encourage everyone to come in when it’s time for your appointment,” she added. “If you’ve never had an appointment, come in.”
Fishel said she still has some big decisions to make.
“I still have doctors to meet — oncologists, radiation specialists, hormone therapists, all kinds of things that I still have to decide,” she said, letting listeners know that she still plans to be part of every podcast episode as she can.
Her friends and co-hosts, fellow “Boy Meets World” actors Will Friedle and Rider Strong — who she said were two of the first to know about the cancer — said they will support Fishel and meet her needs in the way she needs.