The 'SportsCenter' co-anchor opened up about her diagnosis during an appearance on 'Good Morning America.'
Hannah Storm is opening up about her recent breast cancer diagnosis.
During her Tuesday appearance on Good Morning America, the 61-year-old co-anchor of ESPN's SportsCenter revealed to host Robin Roberts that she was diagnosed with breast cancer in January after she went in for her yearly mammogram in November 2023.
"I kind of didn't hear anything at first, and I thought that was a little odd. Usually, you hear right away, 'Everything's fine,'" Storm recalled.
After getting in contact with the place where she had the mammogram done, Storm was told that she needed to do an ultrasound because she had "dense breasts." Storm was already familiar with the imaging test because she'd done it before.
"[I] have my ultrasound in early January and they come back right away this time and they say, 'You know, we're seeing something. We don't think it's anything. It's probably nothing at all, but we'd like you to have a biopsy.' So I'm back a week later for a biopsy, and [the] call came less than 24 hours later. The doctor said, 'I'm so surprised, but you have ductal carcinoma in situ. You have DCIS, the earliest form of breast cancer.'"
Storm said she was "shocked" by the diagnosis since she had mammograms every year. "I had no risk factors. I have no breast cancer in my family. I did not have a lump. I did not have pain. I don't have any genetic predisposition to breast cancer," she stated. "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."
Because Storm's cancer was still in the early stages, she was able to have a lumpectomy, a surgery procedure that removes the cancer or other abnormal tissue from the breast.
"The surgery was successful. I was able to go back to work, cover the Super Bowl, which was a real blessing," Storm said, adding that because of new tests, she didn't have to undergo radiation.
"I'm also taking a drug called tamoxifen that blocks all the estrogen and progesterone, which apparently, my cells feed off of that," she continued. "I'm taking this for the next three years."
Storm, who is cancer-free now, says she decided to share her story with the world to let women know the importance of getting annual mammograms.
"This is how you find it. You find it through getting your yearly mammograms. This is how you find out that you have breast cancer," she emphasized. "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."
Storm -- who has three daughters, Ellery, Hannah and Riley Hicks, with husband Dan Hicks -- said it was even more important for her to publicly talk about her diagnosis because "you want to think about your family."
"I think about having daughters too and the importance of them understanding advocating for their health and what you can do," Storm said. "Don't be afraid to have a mammogram. Be afraid not to. Be afraid of what you don't know."
News of Storm's breast cancer diagnosis comes less than a week after actress Olivia Munn revealed that she privately battled breast cancer in 2023 and had a double mastectomy.
"I was diagnosed with breast cancer," she wrote on Instagram. "I hope by sharing this it will help others find comfort, inspiration and support on their own journey."
"In February of 2023, in an effort to be proactive about my health, I took a genetic test that checks you for 90 different cancer genes," she continued. "I tested negative for all, including BRCA (the most well-known breast cancer gene). My sister, Sara, had just tested negative as well. We called each other and high-fived over the phone. That same winter I also had a normal mammogram. Two months later I was diagnosed with breast cancer."
"Thirty days after that biopsy I had a double mastectomy," Munn revealed. "I went from feeling completely fine one day, to waking up in a hospital bed after a 10-hour surgery the next."
In her post, Munn also thanked her partner, John Mulaney, whom she shares 2-year-old son Malcolm with, as well as the medical professionals who helped her and her loved ones.
"Thank you to the friends who've had breast cancer and the friends who connected me to friends who've had breast cancer for guiding me through some of my most uncertain and overwhelming moments," she concluded.
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