USA: TENNIS: Martina Navratilova opens up about her recent breast cancer diagnosis

Record ID: 588944

  • Title: USA: TENNIS: Martina Navratilova opens up about her recent breast cancer diagnosis
  • Date: 9th April 2010
  • Summary: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (APRIL 7, 2010) (REUTERS) TENNIS GREAT MARTINA NAVRATILOVA AT INTERVIEW (SOUNDBITE) (English) REPORTER OFF-CAMERA ASKING: "I guess the first thing people would want to know is how are you feeling?" (SOUNDBITE) (English) MARTINA NAVRATILOVA SAYING: "Well I was feeling fine until I found out I had a non-invasive cancer. Sort of good news, bad news -- you have cancer but it's a good kind of cancer so it's kind of an oxymoron. But I was feeling fine till then, I didn't feel anything I was pretty sure that what, even after I had the biopsy that it was going to be nothing so it was pretty much of a shock that it was actually cancerous and now I need to deal with it. And my first thought was, oh no I can't believe it, but ten seconds later after crying for a little bit I said okay what do we do? So I got into the solution of it and the first diagnosis that I had was that I may need a mastectomy or a lumpectomy and either radiation or chemo or both and that's what scared me because I don't want to lose my breasts, I don't want to lose my hair, but I have to fight it no matter what happens. Next day I went to see my surgeon where I found out I don't need a mastectomy just a lumpectomy, easy enough, and just radiation is enough so that was kind of, phew, good news, so I was thrilled with that."
  • Embargoed: 24th April 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Health,Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA52R9LB3JRXDSPYUV4LCMUG099
  • Story Text: Martina Navratilova, one of the finest female tennis players of all time, revealed on Wednesday (April 7) that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer.
    "It was pretty much of a shock that it was actually cancerous and now I need to deal with it and my first thought was oh no I can't believe it," said Navratilova, 53, of the February moment when a biopsy came back positive after a routine mammogram revealed a cluster in her left breast.
    "It scared me because I don't want to lose my breasts, I don't want to lose my hair, but I have to fight it no matter what happens."
    Navratilova will begin six weeks of radiation therapy in May after having a minor invasive surgery called a lumpectomy and she says her prognosis for survival is extremely good.
    "I have a 90 percent chance that it won't come back. I already don't have cancer now, because they took it out," Navratilova told Reuters.
    The nine-times Wimbledon champion, who still plays tennis and ice hockey and competes in triathlons, said she is speaking publicly about her cancer to help promote awareness.
    "We caught it so early and I thought, you know, it's because of the mammogram that we found it, then I thought, I have to talk about this."
    The Czech-born Navratilova, who became a U.S. citizen in 1981, won 18 grand slam singles crowns during her career and is now the Health and Fitness advisor for the American Association of Retired People.
    She was diagnosed with a non-invasive form of breast cancer called ductal carcinoma in situ, or DCIS, which in her case had not spread to the breast tissue.
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