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NBC reporter Andrea Mitchell has breast cancer

Andrea Mitchell, NBC's chief foreign affairs correspondent and wife of former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, said on her TV program on Wednesday that she has breast cancer.
/ Source: Reuters

Andrea Mitchell, NBC's chief foreign affairs correspondent and wife of former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, said on her TV program on Wednesday that she has breast cancer.

"I had planned to be hiking in Wyoming last week, but instead discovered that I am now among the one in eight women in this country -- incredibly, one in eight -- who have had breast cancer," she announced at the end of "Andrea Mitchell Reports" on MSNBC.

Mitchell, 64, reported the cancer was found during a recent annual screening and had been caught in its early stages.

"I'm looking at this as another of life's lessons," said Mitchell, who described her prognosis as "terrific."

Signing off, Mitchell said, "I'll see all of you tomorrow."

She encouraged other women to get regular screenings.

"For you women out there and the men who love you, screening matters," she said. "Do it. This disease can be completely curable if you find it, at the right time."

Most advanced breast cancer cases are found in women over age 50, and about 20 to 30 percent of women with breast cancer have a family history of the disease, according to the National Library of Medicine.