Lewis, 51, said she regrets not getting mammograms before she turned 40
Ananda Lewis, who soared to fame as the iconic host of BET's "Teen Summit" in the 1990s before becoming a famed MTV veejay, announced that her breast cancer has advanced to stage 4.
Lewis broke the news to her Instagram followers on Tuesday, Oct. 15. She admits that her decision to decline a double mastectomy, keeping the tumor in her body, and relying on natural remedies may have been a mistake because the cancer has spread aggressively.
"I decided to keep my tumor and try to work it out of my body a different way," Lewis said according to People magazine, noting that she chose to remove toxins from her body. "Looking back, I go, 'Maybe I should have [chosen a different path].'"
"For a really long time, I have refused mammograms, and that was a mistake," Lewis said, recalling her mother's breast cancer struggles after having mammograms.
"I watched my mom get mammograms for almost 30 years, and at the end of that, she had breast cancer, and I said, 'Huh? Radiation exposure for years equals breast cancer. Yeah, I'm going to pass. Thanks anyway.'"
Lewis now understands that mammograms can be life savers.
"If I had done the mammograms from the time they were recommended when I turned 40, they would've caught the tumor in my breast years before I caught it through my own self-exam and thermography," Lewis continued. "And they would have caught it at a place where it was more manageable. Where the treatment of it would have been a little easier. It's never easy, but I use that word in comparison to what I'm going through now. Instead, what I'm dealing with is stage 3 breast cancer that is in my lymphs. I need you to get your mammograms."
Lewis chose to fight her cancer using homeopathic remedies as well as medication, radiation, better sleep, and diet changes. While she says her condition improved for some time, last year, Lewis discovered her cancer had spread.
"My lymph system really flared up. It was the first time I ever had a conversation with death because I felt like: This is how it is," said Lewis, who also had a conversation with comedic actress Amanda Seales about her breast cancer journey.