Fox News Media partnered with the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF) on Thursday for a panel discussion at the network’s New York City headquarters, timed to Breast Cancer Awareness Month and focused on encouraging women to take charge of their own healthcare.
The panel featured “Gutfeld!” co-host Kat Timpf, a breast cancer survivor, and Dr. Priya Malhotra, BCRF’s director of research impact.
Timpf was diagnosed with Stage 0 ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) in February 2025, about 15 hours before giving birth to her first child. She shared the news publicly on social media days later in what she described as an “unconventional birth announcement.”
“Last week, I welcomed my first child into the world. About fifteen hours before I went into labor, I was diagnosed with breast cancer,” Timpf wrote on X at the time. “Now, before you worry, my doctor says it’s stage 0 and is confident that it almost certainly hasn’t spread. Or, as I’ve explained to the few people I’ve managed to tell about it so far: Don’t freak out. It’s just, like, a LITTLE bit of cancer.”
Speaking to Fox News Digital after Thursday’s panel, Timpf said that despite widespread awareness of breast cancer, misconceptions about the disease remain common and can keep people from asking important questions about their own health.
“There is also so much that people don’t know. It can happen at any age, without genetic markers. I would know that,” Timpf said. “Talking about it is always helpful because it removes a lot of the stigma, and it makes you feel like you can ask these questions to your doctor.”
Timpf said humor helped her get through her diagnosis and recovery.
“Humor is how I’ve gotten through every hard thing that’s ever happened to me,” she said. “I was making jokes the day I was diagnosed about getting huge replacement [implants] and stuff like that. That’s just how I do things because I feel like when you say that you can’t joke about a subject, you’re giving it even more power over you than it already has. For me, making jokes about a subject is a way to instead feel power over the things that are threatening to take you down.”
Her message to other women was simple: stay on top of screenings and speak up when something feels wrong.
“Your own health is up to you. So, you have to make sure you pay attention and ask your doctor questions,” Timpf said. “Don’t think it can’t happen to you because I thought that, and I was wrong.”
Breast cancer remains the most common cancer among women in the United States and worldwide. The BCRF estimates that roughly one in eight U.S. women will develop invasive breast cancer in her lifetime.
While the disease has historically been diagnosed more often in older women, rates are climbing among younger women, including those under 40 — younger than the age at which routine mammograms are typically recommended for women at average risk.
Dr. Malhotra noted that although younger patients make up a small share of overall cases, the toll on those affected is severe.
“Incidence of breast cancer is rising in younger women,” Dr. Malhotra said. “Maybe 10% of breast cancers are in younger women. But still, if you’re one of the 10%, it’s crushing.”
Dr. Malhotra, formerly on the faculty at Georgetown University, pointed to rapid progress in treatment options over the past several decades.
“In 1977, we had one targeted treatment for breast cancer. Twenty years later, we had two,” she said. “Fast forward to today, we have over 30 targeted treatments, 19 in the last decade alone. So, it’s moving very quickly, and we’re proud to say that our investigators are involved in all of those, getting them across the finish line.”
She urged women to pay close attention to changes in their bodies, however small they may seem.
“My biggest thing is to know your body because if you feel that something is out of whack — even if you think it’s minor — it’s worth it to talk to your doctor about,” Dr. Malhotra said.
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