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NBC's Andrea Mitchell reveals she has breast cancer

Andrea Mitchell, NBC's chief foreign affairs correspondent, announces her diagnosis with breast cancer and pleads: "Screening matters. Do it."
/ Source: msnbc.com

Andrea Mitchell, NBC's chief foreign affairs correspondent, announced on air Wednesday that she has breast cancer, saying to other women: "Screening matters. Do it."

"I had planned to be hiking in Wyoming last week, but instead discovered that I am now among the 1 in 8 women in this country — incredibly 1 in 8 — who have had breast cancer," the veteran journalist said.

She said her cancer was caught in the "earliest stages" and she described her prognosis as "terrific." Mitchell did not say what kind of treatment she had undergone.

"Mine was discovered during my annual screening just a short time ago," she said. "Luckily for me, I am one of the fortunate ones; we discovered it in the earliest stage, it hadn't spread, and I'm already back at work with a terrific prognosis."

"I’m looking at this as another of life’s lessons," Mitchell said. "For you women out there and the men who love you, screening matters. Do it. This disease can be completely curable if you find it at the right time."

Mitchell is also host of an hour of political news and interviews with top newsmakers that airs each day at 1 p.m. ET on msnbc cable television.

Mitchell currently covers foreign policy, intelligence and national security issues, including the diplomacy of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, for all NBC News properties.

As a featured political correspondent in 2004, Mitchell was a regular panelist on MSNBC’s “Hardball” and was the first reporter to break the story that Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry had chosen Sen. John Edwards as his vice presidential running mate.

Click here to read more about Mitchell