In a video interview, former supermodel Janice Dickinson revealed she has breast cancer. In the video, she said that she received the diagnosis on March 12. During a routine medical exam, her doctor found a lump in her right breast.
The 61-year-old model and TV host had a mammogram and biopsy following the initial detection. She revealed that she has a common type of breast cancer called ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), which forms in the milk ducts. Dickinson said she has an early stage DCIS wherein the cancer has not yet spread.
DCIS is commonly considered as a non-life-threatening type, especially when detected early. Typical treatments for DCIS include radiation and lumpectomy. The former supermodel vows to battle the disease.
"She wants to encourage all women to have regular checkups, as that is how her cancer was discovered," said Lisa Bloom, Dickinson's attorney in the ongoing case against Bill Cosby. Bloom said that Dickinson will not let the diagnosis define her.
In the video interview, Dickinson shared that since her diagnosis, she felt like she had entered into a "nightmarish dream." The diagnosis came when she was shopping with Savannah, her 22-year-old daughter. Dickinson said she became fearful, not for herself but for her fiancé and two children.
"I'm going to get through this. You betcha, kiddo. And I'll be just fine. This is not a pity party. I'm Janice Dickinson. I'm going to stick around for a long, long time," said Dickinson.
Her breast cancer diagnosis came the day before she's due in a Los Angeles court for the ongoing defamation law suit against Cosby's latest attempt to dismiss the case. The case is one of the several others filed by nearly 60 women who accused the stand-up comedian of drugging and / or raping them during episodes that date back decades ago.
Dickinson is one of the most outspoken of these women. In 2014, she went public with the story and said that Cosby sexually assaulted her in 1982 in a hotel room in Lake Tahoe.
