HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – ABC News reporter Amy Robach didn't want to get a mammogram, but it ended up saving her life.
Robach, 40, revealed that after submitting to the procedure live on the air for "Good Morning America's" Pink Day, she was found to have breast cancer and will now undergo a bilateral mastectomy.
"The reason to get a mammogram is because breast cancer is not one of those things that you're going to feel or necessarily be symptomatic if you catch it early," said Dr. Rakesh Parbhu, a radiologist at Memorial Healthcare System.
Although breast cancer risk increases with age, Parbhu said 25 percent of patients receive a diagnosis while in their 40s.
"That's why if you get your mammograms beginning at age 40 and every year after that, we can detect it before the patients can actually feel it," he said. "If we waited for them to feel it and present, it likely would be too late in saving their lives."
The latest technology allows doctors to view breast tissue in 3D imaging.
"The radiologists can look at the breasts in one millimeter slices and layers, so I can actually see through the breast and what we're finding is that we're detecting more cancers," said Parbhu.