‘Dance Moms’ Alum Kelly Hyland, 53, Praised As ‘Strongest Woman I Know’ By Daughters Amid Breast Cancer Diagnosis

The Importance of Breast Cancer Screenings

• “Dance Moms” alum Kelly Hyland may be battling invasive stage 1, grade 3 breast cancer, but her three children are certain she’ll beat the disease as she’s the “strongest woman” they know.
• Hyland discovered she had cancer after finding a lump on her breast and getting a mammogram, followed by a biopsy.
• The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recently issued new finalized recommendations suggesting women with average breast cancer risk begin screening mammograms once every two years at the age of 40. It’s important to note that women with the BRCA gene mutation, who have a family history of cancer, or have dense breasts are at higher risk and should talk with their doctor about when to begin screening. It may be younger than 40.
• SurvivorNet experts recommend performing a monthly breast self-exam to look for anything unusual with your breasts because it can help catch breast cancer between regularly scheduled mammograms.
• Facing cancer as a parent can be an incredibly difficult task. But having children who depend on, like Kelly Hyland has with her three children, you can also provide another reason to fight the disease with everything you’ve got.
• Chemotherapy is an effective tool for oncologists to treat cancer by stopping cancerous cells from growing, dividing, and spreading to other organs. Chemo works by traveling through the bloodstream, killing cancerous cells. However, the process also impacts healthy cells, leading to side effects. There are several things you can do to help minimize the hit and restore energy, like exercising, eating well, and getting an adequate amount of sleep.

"Dance Moms" alum Kelly Hyland, a loving wife and mom to Brooke, Josh, and Paige, has revealed she's battling a shocking diagnosis of invasive stage 1, grade 3 breast cancer—something which her loved ones are confident she can beat as she's the "strongest woman" they know. Following a recent interview announcing her diagnosis, the Pennsylvania native's 26-year-old daughter Brooke took to social media to share heartwarming photos of her mom during chemotherapy treatment, captioning the post, "Confident that cancer has no idea who it’s messing with . I love you, mom." Hyland's 23-year-old daughter Paige also took to Instagram to offer some hopeful words, writing alongside a photo of her sitting close to her mom, "The strongest person I know. I love you more." Exclusively speaking to E! News about her diagnosis, Hyland recounted her first "red flag" that something was off with her body was her "significant weight loss," explaining, "I lost enough that others noticed and would ask for my dieting hacks, but there was nothing I had changed in my day-to-day to cause the loss." It wasn't until Hyland, who often performed self breast exams, discovered a lump in her breast this past March and made a mammogram appointment—a decision which confirmed she had a mass in her breast just weeks later. A biopsy confirmed the mass was malignant [cancerous] and further testing revealed she has a fast moving, and invasive stage 1, grade 3 breast cancer. "I had just had one done eight months prior and the results came back clean. However, this new mammogram and sonogram did not, it came back showing a mass," she told E! News. "I went from clean results to a malignant mass in eight months. I was shocked that it had grown that quickly and scared of the battle I knew I was about to face." RELATED: Hope For Some Early-Stage Breast Cancer Patients: Verzenio After the surprising diagnosis, Hyland, who now lives in Florida, had to tell her two daughters and 25-year-old son Josh that she had cancer through a phone call. She told E! News, "I did a four-way call with all of my kids because I wanted to tell them at the same time and make sure they were all given the same information," admitting, it "was a very hard conversation" for them all.

All three of Hyland's children also spoke with E! News, with Paige recounting a "gut feeling that something was off" and the "whirlwind of emotions" she felt after the shocking news. "Not only was I scared, I was angry, sad, and confused why this would happen to someone as amazing as my mother," Paige said. "We lost my Nana to cancer in 2019, so I understood the long road we had ahead of us and it pained me to imagine my mother having to endure that same feeling." Brooke added, "We watched my Nana battle cancer for years so I knew that we were at the start of a very long and challenging road. I hated that I had to watch another important person in my life go through it." However, she's put her worries aside and insists her mom "is the strongest woman I know." "I am confident that she will come out on top of this and I will be there every step of the way. She has so much love and support in her corner!" Brooke said. As for their brother Josh, he remains optimistic for the future, telling the news magazine, "I feel very hopeful that it is only at stage one, I feel like she caught it quickly. I know my mom is strong enough to get through this." Paige also described her mom as strong to E! News, saying, "She's the strongest person I know and is there for the people she cares about without hesitation. "As much as I wish I could take away her pain and cure her from this horrible situation, the only thing I had the power to do is be there for her the same way she's been there for me my whole life." Hyland said she's now on the second of her first six chemotherapy treatments, that each last about 10 hours. She will then undergo surgery, radiation, and 11 more chemotherapy treatments Dr. Elizabeth Comen explains the main aspects of early-stage breast cancer.

Expert Resources On Early Detection & Cancer Screenings

• 6 Common Excuses for Skipping a Mammogram That You Need to Stop Using!
• How to Avoid False Positive Cancer Results in Women With Dense Breasts: Ultrasounds Used in Addition To Mammograms
• Breast Cancer: Introduction to Prevention & Screening
• Mammograms Are Still the Best Tool for Detecting Breast Cancer — A Warning About Thermography
• The Mammogram Debate: Should Women Start Breast Cancer Screening at 30?
• I Have Dense Breasts. Do I Need a 3D Mammogram?

The type of breast cancer Hyland is battling is stage one, which SurvivorNet's experts explain as relatively small; they either have not spread to the lymph nodes or only a small area of cancer has spread to the sentinel lymph node. Treatment for stage one breast cancer will likely be surgery and radiation following surgery, along with chemotherapy or some other therapy. For women whose breast cancer is hormone receptor positive doctors will also recommend hormone therapy. For HER2 positive cancers the drug Herceptin will be recommended. Hyland's cancer was also classified as a grade three, which Susan G. Komen explains means, "the tumor cells look very abnormal and are fast-growing (poorly-differentiated)." WATCH: What is a scalp-cooling device?

Helpful Information About Breast Cancer Screening

The medical community has a consensus that women between 45 and 54 have annual mammograms. However, an independent panel of experts called the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) is saying that women should start getting mammograms every other year at the age of 40, suggesting that this lowered the age for breast cancer screening could save 19% more lives. For women aged 55 and older, the American Cancer Society recommends getting a mammogram every other year. However, women in this age group who want added reassurance can still get annual mammograms. Women with a strong family history of breast cancer, have dense breasts, have a genetic mutation known to increase the risk of breast cancer, such as a BRCA gene mutation , or a medical history, including chest radiation therapy before age 30, are considered at higher risk for breast cancer. Mammograms Are Still the Best Tool for Detecting Breast Cancer Experiencing menstruation at an early age (before 12) or having dense breasts can also put you into a high-risk category. If you are at a higher risk for developing breast cancer, you should begin screening earlier. Breast density is determined through mammograms. However, women with dense breasts are at a higher risk for developing breast cancer because dense breast tissue can mask potential cancer during screening. 3D mammograms, breast ultrasound, breast MRI, and molecular breast imaging are options for women with dense breasts for a more precise screening. It is important to ask your doctor about your breast density and cancer risk. RELATED: 3D Mammography Detects 34% More Breast Cancers Than Traditional Mammography WATCH: Understanding the BRCA gene mutation

Family History & Breast Cancer Risk

Although breast cancer can happen to anyone, certain factors can increase a person’s risk of getting the disease. The known risk factors for breast cancer include:

• Older age
• Having a gene mutation such as the BRCA1 or BRCA2
• Added exposure to estrogen
• Having children after the age of 30
• Exposure to radiation early in life
• Family history of the disease

RELATED: Is Genetic Testing Right for You? Different types of genetic testing can help people with a family history of cancer better ascertain their cancer risks. Your doctor will discuss your family history of cancer with you in the context of your type of tumor and your age at diagnosis. Hereditary genetic testing is usually done with a blood or saliva test. WATCH: Understanding genetic testing for breast cancer. About ten percent of breast cancers are hereditary, says Dr. Ophira Ginsburg, Director of the High-Risk Cancer Program at NYU Langone’s Perlmutter Cancer Center. “We encourage only those with a family history to get [genetic testing],” Dr. Ginsburg previously told SurvivorNet . “I would say that if you have anyone in your family diagnosed with a rare cancer. Or if you have a strong family history of one or two kinds of cancer, particularly breast and ovarian, but also colon, rectal, uterine, and ovarian cancer, that goes together in another cancer syndrome called the Lynch Syndrome. The second test involves the genetic sequencing of your tumor if you’ve been diagnosed with cancer by this point. These genetic changes can be inherited, but most arise during a person’s lifetime. This process usually involves examining a biopsy or surgical specimen of your tumor. This testing can lead to decisions on drugs that might work against your cancer. Learn Your Risk and Listen to the Guidelines: An Important Message About Breast Cancer Awareness “Digital mammography, it turns out, significantly improves the quality of the mammogram… It’s 3D or tomosynthesis mammography,” Dr. Lehman explains. “This allows us to find more cancers and significantly reduce our false-positive rate. With digital mammography 3D tomosynthesis, we’re taking thin slices through that breast tissue, like slices of a loaf of bread. We can look at each slice independently rather than trying to see through the entire thickness of the entire loaf of bread. So those thin slices help us find things that were hidden in all the multiple layers,” Dr. Lehman adds. Additional testing can be considered for dense breasts, depending on a woman’s personal history, preferences, and her physician’s guidance. WATCH: 3D Mammograms explained.

Know the Signs of Breast Cancer

It’s always important to stay on top of any changes to your health and address them promptly. Signs and symptoms of breast cancer can include the following:

• A breast lump or thickening that feels different from the surrounding tissue
• Change in the size, shape or appearance of a breast
• Changes to the skin over the breast, such as dimpling
• A newly inverted nipple
• Peeling, scaling, crusting or flaking of the pigmented area of skin surrounding the nipple (areola) or breast skin
• Redness or pitting of the skin over your breast, like the skin of an orangeIt's important to keep an eye out for these symptoms while remembering that having one or many of them does not necessarily mean you have breast cancer.

Regardless, you should always speak with a doctor right away if anything ever feels off or you're experiencing one or more of the signs listed above. You never know when speaking up about your health can lead to a very important diagnosis.

Battling Cancer as a Parent

Opening up about cancer diagnosis with children can be really difficult task. You want to be honest with them and you want them to be prepared for what might happen, but at the same time you want to protect them, and be as gentle as possible. John Duberstein , who lost his wife Nina to cancer, explains that he and his wife tried to take a progressive approach and be as open with their kids as possible. But as honest as they were, they ran into some issues with their kids understanding the disease. When Nina started to look healthier, for example, the kids assumed she was getting better, but that wasn’t the case. Talking to Kids About Cancer: Be Open as Much as You Can “It was a real eye-opening moment for two people who felt like they were dealing really head-on with this stuff, talking to the kids,” Duberstein told SurvivorNet in an earlier interview. “So I think it’s important to be open with the kids as much as you can, as much as you feel like they can handle. But it’s also important to revisit it and not make assumptions. At the end of the night, what Nina had to tell them was, ‘I’m not ever going to get better. My cancer is not ever going to go away,’ it was hard for them to hear even though they’d already been prepared.” RELATED: “I Had This Mom Strength Come Over Me”: TV Journalist Amy Robach on Telling Kids About Cancer Meanwhile, breast cancer survivor Gina de Givenchy previously spoke with SurvivorNet about going through cancer treatment as the mother of a 12-year-old girl. “I felt it was important to mask it because I really wanted her to know that I was going to be OK. I didn’t want her to see me weak and sickly,” she said. “When it comes to your kids, I think you always want to sort of protect them.” Telling Your Kids You Have Cancer ‘When it Comes to Your Kids, You Want to Protect Them’ The pressures of parenthood can be daunting during a cancer journey, but having little ones that depend on you can also provide another source of motivation to fight for your life. Jovannie Lorenzo also knows this to be true. When she was diagnosed with colon cancer at 32, she felt an immense amount of fear because she was a single parent of her three kids. Going into her cancer battle, Lorenzo knew she would do everything in her power to be around to raise them. Facing a Cancer Diagnosis as a Single Parent: “I Knew I Had to Fight for My Life” “I knew that I had to do everything possible to be here for my children,” Lorenzo told SurvivorNet. “They are my saving grace. They are the reason I wake up every morning. They are the reason why I fight every single day and I make a choice to be positive, to be happy, and to move forward.” Obviously, not every parent feels comfortable sharing so much about their diagnosis with their children. Some survivors have even told us that they were afraid to tell their family members, but as for Duberstein, de Givenchy, and Lorenzo, honesty was the best policy. Licensed clinical psychologist Dr. Marianna Strongin encourages people with sick parents “to talk about your feelings with your immediate family as well as your parents.” She’s previously talked about the importance of expressing your feelings in her advice column for SurvivorNet. “Talking about difficult things does not cause more anxiety,” Dr. Strongin said. “It is NOT talking about the very thing that we are all afraid or worried about that causes our body to feel dysregulated (unable to manage emotional responses or keep them within an acceptable range of typical emotional reactions) and anxious.” Specifically, with patients who may be scared to talk to their children about a diagnosis, Strongin said children can pick up on their emotions, so it may help to check in with yourself beforehand. “Having these conversations may bring up deep emotions you may have stowed away. There is nothing wrong with showing our emotions to children as long as we can remain calm and give them a sense of safety,” Dr. Strongin said.

Power of Support

A cancer diagnosis can be extremely stressful. One way SurvivorNet experts encourage cancer patients to alleviate some of that stress by leaning on their support system. A support system can be made up of loved ones like family and friends. It can also be comprised of strangers who have come together because of a shared cancer experience. Mental health professionals can also be critical parts of a support system. WATCH: Sharing details about your cancer diagnosis. "Some people don't need to go outside of their family and friend's circle. They feel like they have enough support there," psychiatrist Dr. Lori Plutchik told SurvivorNet. "But for people who feel like they need a little bit more, it's important to reach out to a mental health professional," Dr. Plutchik added. Dr. Plutchik also stressed it is important for people supporting cancer warriors to understand their emotions can vary day-to-day. "People can have a range of emotions—they can include fear, anger—and these emotions tend to be fluid. They can recede and return based on where someone is in the process," Dr. Plutchik said. Contributing: SurvivorNet Staff