NCI director announces breast cancer diagnosis, says prognosis ‘very favorable’
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Monica M. Bertagnolli, MD, FACS, FASCO, director of the NCI, announced today that she has been diagnosed with early-stage hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer.
The cancer appears to be confined to the breast and the prognosis is “very favorable,” Bertagnolli said in a statement.
She will undergo surgery and potentially require additional treatment. She also has enrolled in a clinical trial.
“I am grateful that I had access to effective screening and caught this early,” Bertagnolli said in the statement. “As is the case for many people after a cancer diagnosis, I’m in a waiting period right now and there are things we don’t know. But thanks to research funded by NCI, answers about the treatment that’s best for me will come in time.”
Bertagnolli took over as NCI director on Oct. 3, becoming the first woman to serve in that role. She said she will continue in this role but will take leave as necessary, relying on additional support from NCI’s leadership team.
Bertagnolli is receiving treatment at Brigham and Women’s Hospital — where she previously served as a surgeon — and at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, where she served as a member of the Gastrointestinal Cancer and Sarcoma Disease Center.
“As doctors, we are also human, and we are not fundamentally different from the people that we care for just because we are on the provider side of things,” Bertagnolli said. “The patient experience is something that I think everyone goes through in life — although each individual’s experience is unique, especially when it comes to cancer.
“Having been an oncologist my entire career, it was always — and still is — all about the patients and survivors,” she added. “It’s one thing to know about cancer as a physician, but it is another to experience it firsthand as a patient, as well. To anyone with cancer today: I am truly in this together with you.”
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