Danielle Fishel, who played Topanga Lawrence in the 1990s sitcom “Boy Meets World,” announced she has been diagnosed with breast cancer.
"I was recently diagnosed with DCIS, which stands for ductal carcinoma in situ. Which is a form of breast cancer,” the 43-year-old said on Sunday’s episode of her “Pod Meets World” podcast she has with former co-stars Rider Strong and Will Friedle.
Fishel explained the diagnosis is super early — considered to be Stage 0 — and that she is going to be fine. She also said she’s going to have surgery to remove it and has other big decisions to make about her future treatment.
Fishel said she credits catching the cancer so early to a text message. When she got a text message reminder for her yearly mammogram, she immediately made the appointment instead of putting it off.
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“I wanna share this because I hope that it will encourage anyone to get in there,” said Fishel. “If it’s time for your appointment, if you’ve never had an appointment before, get in there.”
According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, DCIS affects the cells of the milk ducts in the breasts and accounts for 20% of breast cancers in the U.S. It can be treated with surgery, and sometimes with radiation and medicine, but chemotherapy is not needed.
DCIS does not have specific symptoms such as a lump or breast pain, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine, therefore most cases are diagnosed in a mammogram — commonly showing up as new calcium deposits.
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Fishel explained she always thought she would “suffer in silence” if she were ever diagnosed with something like cancer, but she instead decided to share her journey after seeing how helpful it can be.
She said she’s learned from author Glennon Doyle that people tend to share struggles after they’re over so that they may present a pretty picture and the end of the story. "But the place you have the most to learn from is at the beginning of a story or the very messy middle of a story," Fishel said.
