Breast cancer researcher diagnosed with the disease she studies

A Harvard-affiliated breast cancer researcher, diagnosed at 43 after a routine mammogram, is urging women to get screened.

A Harvard Medical School instructor has been diagnosed with the same type of breast cancer she has spent her career researching, ABC News reports.

Dr. Jennifer Guerriero, who also directs a research lab at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, was diagnosed with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer this spring, at age 43. “I knew the science. I knew the biology of breast cancer, but nothing prepared me to hear the words, ‘I have cancer,'” she told ABC News.

She said a routine mammogram found the cancer. “I didn’t have any symptoms. I didn’t have a lump,” she said. She had a double mastectomy in August and says she feels lucky it was caught early.

Guerriero said her surgeon told her she would not have been able to detect the lump for five more years. She is sharing her story to encourage women to get routine mammograms.

The US Preventive Services Task Force recommends mammograms every two years for women aged 40 to 74.