Amanda Peet Opens Up About Breast Cancer Diagnosis.
Amanda Peet talks about how she handled several health emergencies in her family. The Something's Gotta Give actress revealed that she just received a breast cancer diagnosis, which forced her to prioritize her health while her parents were receiving hospice assistance.
“For many years, I’ve been told that I have ‘dense’ and ‘busy’ breasts—not as a compliment but as a warning that they require extra monitoring,” her essay was released in the New Yorker on March 21. “I had been seeing a breast surgeon every six months for checkups.”
However, the 54-year-old's doctor conducted a biopsy after a routine scan in late August produced an odd ultrasound result. The sample revealed a tumor that "appeared" modest but would require an MRI to determine "the extent of the disease."
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Amanda's parents, who were "long divorced" and living on "opposite coasts," started to deteriorate while she planned the next stages in her health battle, and her father unexpectedly passed away.
“Our mother’s had started in June, but our fathers was only a week in, so we hadn’t expected him to go first,” she added. “I flew to New York. I didn’t make it before my father took his last breath, but I got to see his body before it was taken from his apartment.”
After learning that her illness was fortunately "hormone-receptor-positive" and "HER2-negative" upon her return to Los Angeles, the Your Friends and Neighbors star—who is married to David Benioff and has children Frances, 19, Molly, 15, and Henry, 11—felt "happier than I'd been pre-diagnosis." A second lump in the same breast was later found on her MRI, but it turned out to be benign and didn't need chemotherapy or a double mastectomy.
In her essay's conclusion, Amanda talked of her heartbreaking farewell to her mother, who fought Parkinson's disease and provided consolation in her last moments.
“The morphine was taking forever to kick in, and she was looking at the ceiling and whimpering, so I climbed onto her rented hospital bed to get in her line of vision,” Amanda remembered. “We locked eyes and she quieted down, and then she and I continued to stare at each other for what felt like several minutes.”
Many celebrities have talked about their experiences with cancer, much like Amanda.
