The short answer
Robin Roberts found a lump during a self-exam in 2007. Her mammogram appeared normal, but an ultrasound found a tumour and a biopsy showed triple-negative breast cancer. Five years later she developed MDS, a bone marrow disorder CURE calls a side effect of her cancer treatment, and had a transplant from her sister in September 2012.
Roberts found a lump herself the night of a tribute show for a colleague who had died of cancer.
Her mammogram appeared normal. An ultrasound found the tumour, and she was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer.
Triple-negative disease has none of the three targets that hormone and HER2 drugs aim at. NCI lists chemotherapy and immunotherapy among its treatment options, and CURE says Roberts had chemotherapy and radiation.
Five years later she was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), a rare side effect of her cancer treatment.
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A lump she found herself
Robin Roberts is a co-anchor of ABC's Good Morning America.
In 2007 her program aired a tribute to her colleague Joel Siegel, who had died of cancer. Roberts had presented a piece in it about early detection. In her own account of what happened next, she says that when she went to bed that night she did a self breast exam, and found a lump.
When the mammogram came back normal
Her mammogram appeared normal.
That could easily have been the end of it. It was not, because she had felt something and her doctor took that seriously. CURE reports that a follow-up ultrasound found the tumor.
This is the part of her story most worth remembering. A scan that comes back clear is reassuring, but it is not proof. In her case the mammogram looked normal but the ultrasound found the tumor. If you can feel a change and a scan says nothing, tell your care team and keep asking. Call your care team right away about a new lump.
Treating triple-negative disease
She was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer.
NCI says triple-negative breast cancer cells do not have estrogen receptors, progesterone receptors, or large amounts of HER2 protein, so therapies that target those markers do not work. NCI lists chemotherapy and immunotherapy among the options. CURE says Roberts had chemotherapy and radiation.
She also chose to talk about the diagnosis on television. CURE quotes her: "I wanted to control the story."
A second illness caused by the first
About five years later she was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome, or MDS. NCI describes MDS as a group of conditions in which immature blood cells in the bone marrow do not mature into healthy blood cells, and lists past chemotherapy or radiation therapy as a risk factor. CURE describes Roberts's MDS as a rare side effect of her cancer treatment.
She needed a bone marrow transplant. Her sister Sally-Ann donated, the transplant was done on September 20, 2012, and Roberts returned to Good Morning America on February 20, 2013.
What survivors take from her case
Three things, and they pull in different directions.
Act on what you feel. Knowing the symptoms of breast cancer mattered more for her than any scan did.
Ask what subtype you have. The types of breast cancer behave differently and respond to different drugs, and triple-negative disease is treated differently from the rest. Our overview of breast cancer treatment explains how those choices get made.
And expect follow-up to go on for years. Cancer treatment can raise the risk of other problems later, such as MDS. That is not a reason to skip treatment. Ask your team what follow-up you need, and call them right away about new symptoms.
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Prevention, possible warning signs, screening, and diagnosis
The information below is general: it does not reveal anything else about a public person’s health, and not every point applies to every cancer. Personal advice depends on age, symptoms, family history, exposures, and medical history.
Prevention and risk reduction
Not every cancer can be prevented. Avoiding tobacco, protecting skin from ultraviolet radiation, limiting alcohol, staying active, and receiving recommended HPV or hepatitis B vaccination can lower the risk of certain cancers. A risk factor is not a prediction or a cause in one individual.
Symptoms and possible early signs
Possible signs vary and are often caused by conditions other than cancer. Changes worth discussing include a new lump, unexplained bleeding or weight loss, a persistent cough, lasting bowel or bladder changes, a changing skin spot, or symptoms that persist or worsen. Some early cancers cause no symptoms.
Screening and early detection
Screening looks for certain cancers before symptoms begin. Recommended tests exist only for some cancers and depend on age and risk. Screening can have benefits and harms; it is not the same as evaluating a new symptom, and there is no single routine scan or blood test that reliably screens for every cancer.
How cancer is diagnosed
Diagnosis may involve a history and exam, imaging, laboratory tests, and often a biopsy. Pathology can identify the cancer type and may test biomarkers that guide treatment. Symptoms, screening results, tumor markers, or online stories alone cannot confirm cancer.
A public story may encourage questions, but it should not be used to estimate your risk or choose testing. Contact a healthcare professional about a persistent or concerning change. Seek urgent care for severe or rapidly worsening symptoms.
Common questions
How did Robin Roberts find her breast cancer?
She found a lump during a self-exam. In her 2007 announcement she said that the night of the tribute show for her colleague Joel Siegel — a show in which she had presented a piece about early detection — she did a self breast exam and found a lump.
Her mammogram was normal. So why did anyone keep looking?
Because she had felt something. CURE reports that although her mammogram appeared normal, her doctor ordered a follow-up ultrasound, which found the tumour. A normal mammogram does not cancel out a lump you can feel. If you find a change in your breast, call your care team right away.
What does triple-negative mean?
The tumour has no oestrogen receptors, no progesterone receptors and no extra HER2. Those are the three things most targeted breast cancer drugs act on. NCI says therapies that target those markers do not work for triple-negative breast cancer. Chemotherapy and immunotherapy are among the treatment options.
What was the blood disorder she developed later?
Myelodysplastic syndrome, or MDS, a disorder of the bone marrow. CURE describes it as a rare side effect of her cancer treatment. She had a bone marrow transplant on 20 September 2012 with her sister Sally-Ann as donor, and returned to Good Morning America on 20 February 2013.
Does this mean chemotherapy is too dangerous?
Do not stop or refuse treatment because of this story. NCI lists past chemotherapy or radiation as a risk factor for MDS, and CURE calls Roberts's MDS rare. Talk with your care team about the long-term risks and the follow-up you will need.
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Last updated: 2026-10-16Next planned review: 2028-07-11
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Cancer Explained does not originate medical claims. Every page restates guidance already published by the National Cancer Institute, the CDC, the USPSTF and the FDA, in plain language, with the source cited so you can check the original yourself. AI does the translating and organizing; automated checks test claims, citations, clarity and safety before anything publishes, and this is translation and navigation, not clinical judgment. Nothing here is personal medical advice, and no page can account for your particular situation.
Editorial status: Source checked — This page was written with AI assistance and then compared with the sources listed on it, looking for statements those sources do not back up. That check is not a sentence-by-sentence record and can miss errors. It is not a medical review, and it does not confirm the page is complete or right for your situation.
Human medical review: not completed. Pages here are not signed off by a clinician before they publish. That is not an oversight we are quietly working around: we restate published guidance and cite it, so the authority belongs to the source rather than to us, and every page names where its claims come from — you can verify us instead of trusting us. Where a volunteer clinician has reviewed a page, their name and credentials appear on it; where no name appears, no clinician has checked it. We are glad to have reviewers and are recruiting them, and we do not hold pages back waiting for one. Use this site to understand your situation and to ask better questions of the people treating you.
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