Things to know when you get cancer
The gist
A cancer patient's essay and two hospital articles urge pushing for testing and screening.
The throughline: don't assume youth or fitness rules out cancer, and act early.
How it unfolded
- 2024 -08Monica Larcada, a 38-year-old Miami Pilates instructor, felt a lump in her right breast and called her gynecologist right away.
- 2026 -05The author of the first-person essay was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma in his mouth.
- Oct 12, 2026UT MD Anderson published an article on detecting colon cancer without a colonoscopy, medically reviewed by gastroenterologist David Richards, M.D.