Swedish Gender Equality Minister Nina Larsson breast cancer diagnosis, Digi Mart USA News (Sweden): Swedish Gender Equality Minister Nina Larsson (L) has been diagnosed with breast cancer. In an exclusive interview with the Swedish magazine Femina, she speaks openly about the diagnosis, the operation and her future.
Around 9,000 people in Sweden are diagnosed with breast cancer each year.
The tumor was discovered during a mammography screening the week after the election. Larsson said she had deliberately scheduled the examination for that time, when her workload had eased somewhat; the invitation had originally arrived in August.
The X-ray took only a few minutes, and she had expected a digital confirmation that everything looked normal. Instead, a letter arrived a couple of weeks later requesting follow-up examinations.
“I hadn’t noticed anything and didn’t expect the mammography to show anything. But when I got word that they would do follow-up examinations, you almost have to expect the worst,” Larsson said.
She said she approached the situation in a matter-of-fact, project-management way and did not tell anyone at first, wanting to know more before sharing the news.
Larsson had planned a large celebration for her 50th birthday and held a full-day party, even though she already knew the diagnosis might be coming. A tissue sample and an ultrasound followed the next Monday, and a cancer physician and a contact nurse then confirmed that the samples showed cancer.
“It was not hereditary, but it was cancer,” she said.
Larsson described the prognosis as good while acknowledging the seriousness of the illness. She said the hardest part was telling her children and her parents.
Her daughters’ father was present when she told the children, who had already suspected something serious. Her parents, who live in Värmland, received the news by phone.
The operation, performed under general anesthesia, lasted one and a half hours and removed the tumor, surrounding tissue and sentinel lymph nodes. The tumor measured 14 millimeters.
Larsson said the cancer is neither hereditary nor hormone-driven, and that it is too early to say whether it has spread. She has not yet started radiation therapy and will learn more about her ongoing treatment plan later.
Larsson said she is staying as close to a normal routine as possible, continuing her work as gender equality minister in the transitional government, spending time with friends and sewing in place of her usual gym workouts. She said she is looking ahead positively while planning for possible treatment-related delays.
“Please get your mammogram! Don’t miss these appointments,” she urged readers.
