Giuliana Rancic revealed on NBC’s Today Show that she has been diagnosed with breast cancer. The 37-year-old E! News and Style Network host discovered the tumor during a doctor-recommended mammogram while she was undergoing IVF treatment. Giuliana Rancic, who is married to former Apprentice winner Bill Rancic, said she had not initially wanted to get the mammogram done, but her doctor insisted, saying “I don’t care if you’re 26 or 36…I will not get you pregnant if possibly there’s a small risk that you have cancer because the hormones will accelerate the cancer.” During the mammogram doctors discovered that Giuliana Rancic had a treatable form of breast cancer.
Since the news came out that Giuliana Rancic has breast cancer, some have begun to wonder if it’s possible that the IVF treatments (Giuliana Rancic has had 3 so far) could be to blame for the diagnosis, considering only 5% of women under 40 are diagnosed with breast cancer.
“The evidence is that IVF has no effect or lowers incidence, said Adrian V. Lee, a professor of pharmacology and chemical biology and director of the Women’s Cancer Research Center at the University of Pittsburgh’s Magee-Womens Research Institute. “The largest study in Sweden—of 25,000 women who had IVF compared to 1.4 million without —showed a 25 percent reduction in breast cancer and a 40 percent reduction in cervical cancer in those who had IVF.”
One theory is that hormones from IVF might stimulate a tumor to grow, said Dr. Mark Perloe, medical director at Georgia Reproductive Specialists. But those same hormones would be present with a natural pregnancy, as well.
“My concern is that this is going to cause a lot of people to be afraid,” Perloe said. “My advice to anyone who has concerns is to speak to their doctor and learn to do breast self-exams—and to check to see if anyone in their family had cancer before thet age of 40.”
Watch Giuliana Rancic on the Today show here:
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