Olivia Munn shares breast cancer diagnosis in health update
Actor Olivia Munn, best known for her role in The Newsroom, has announced she’s been diagnosed with breast cancer.
Munn, who thankfully caught the cancer at a timely stage, has decided to go public with the diagnosis in a bid to encourage more women to get checked. “I hope by sharing this it will help others find comfort, inspiration and support on their own journey,” she wrote on Instagram.
Her cancer journey began in February 2023 when Munn was checked for 90 different cancer genes and each one was negative. However, later in the year, she underwent a mammogram which eventually led to her securing an early diagnosis.
The actor explained of her circumstance: “I wouldn’t have found my cancer for another year – at my next scheduled mammogram – except that my OBGYN, Dr. Thaïs Aliabadi, decided to calculate my Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Score. The fact that she did saved my life. Dr. Aliabadi looked at factors like my age, familial breast cancer history, and the fact that I had my first child after the age of 30. She discovered my lifetime risk was at 37%.”
Due to the high percentage score, Munn was ordered to get an MRI before an ultrasound and biopsy ultimately commenced. “The biopsy showed I had Luminal B cancer in both breasts. Luminal B is an aggressive, fast moving cancer,” she revealed. A month after her biopsy, Munn then had a double mastectomy.
Munn said: “I’m lucky. We caught it with enough time that I had options. I want the same for any woman who might have to face this one day. Ask your doctor to calculate your Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Score. Dr. Aliabadi says that If the number is greater than 20%, you need annual mammograms and breast MRIs starting at age 30.”
She also expressed gratitude to her friends and family “for loving me through this”. Additionally, Munn thanked her husband, comedian John Mulaney, “for the nights he spent researching what every operation and medication meant and what side effects and recovery I could expect.”
See Munn’s Instagram post in full below.
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