7 Healthcast: Robin Roberts cancer

This morning, "Good Morning America" anchor Robin Roberts announced that she has the disease.

Roberts said her cancer is in the early stages, which is good news because early detection and treatment is a woman's best chance for a cure.

"I have breast cancer, as my family here knows and my family at home knows and I'm very blessed and thankful that I found it early," Roberts said this morning on "Good Morning America."

Roberts said a few weeks ago while doing a self-breast exam, she found a lump. She went to her doctor and further testing revealed an early form of breast cancer.

Surgical oncologist Kevin Hughes said detecting breast cancer early generally allows for less extensive treatment.

"In general for early stage breast cancer we would do either a lumpectomy alone if it's a non-invasive type of cancer, the very earliest," Hughes said. "Or a lumpectomy with a sentinel node biopsy, meaning taking out one of the nodes under the arm at the same time. If we can remove the cancer entirely, we can then follow that with radiation treatment and often preserve the breast."

Roberts said she's scheduled to have surgery at the end of the week.

Finding breast cancer early increases a woman's chance of a cure.

"Our cure rate for breast cancer has gone up tremendously, the mortality from breast cancer has been dropping the last several years," Hughes said.

And it's recommended that women over 40 have a mammogram every year.

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