Breast Cancer Wisdom from Sheryl Crow: Get an Annual Exam & Mammogram

Her Breast Cancer was detected very early using Mammogram

Last month, 44-year old singer Sheryl Crow announced that she has breast cancer. She is only 44.  Sheryl Crow credits her yearly exam with detecting the cancer.  And, according to an interview in a local newspaper with Sheryl Crow's mom Bernice, "she had absolutely no symptoms at all. She went in for a mammogram and the doctors caught the cancer at its earliest stage."

She is doing great but there it is striking to me how many young singers and actresses have been diagnosed with breast cancer. Last year, singer, Kylie Minogue announced she has breast cancer at 36. When singer/actress Olivia Newton-John announced she had breast cancer, she was only 44.  Singer Carly Simon was diagnosed at 53. Melissa Etheridge announced it at 43. Singer Anastacia was diagnosed when she was 29. Actress Cynthia Nixon is not even 40 years old and had breast cancer several years ago.

Alarmingly, an article today on Yahoo News says that younger breast cancer patients more at risk. While the article say "young women under 45 years old diagnosed with early breast cancer have a higher risk of dying from the disease than older patients", they note that "younger women may also ignore a suspicious lump in their breast thinking it is harmless or that they are too young to have breast cancer."

The best form of detection is the annual exam and a mammogram.

Sadly, actress Wendie Jo Sperber, best known for her role on TV's Busom Buddies with Tom Hanks, died from breast cancer a few months ago at 47. Wikipedia has a very very long list of famous people with breast cancer.  While the list includes a lot of women under 50, the good news is that it's a very long list of survivors, likely because of early detection.

If you, your wife, sister or daughter is a woman over 40, make sure you go for that annual exam and mammogram.

Help others by posting feedback and sharing your health wisdom in the comments below.