“There’s so much good happening in my life as a result of all the hardship,” the actress tells PEOPLE
It was the end of May 2021, and actress Miranda McKeon had just finished her freshman year at the University of Southern California. Back home at her family’s beach house in Asbury Park, N.J., the then-19-year-old was celebrating with friends and looking forward to a fun summer when, as she was adjusting her bra, she brushed across a jelly-bean-size lump in her right breast that she’d never noticed before.
“I kind of started freaking out,” recalls Miranda, who’s best known for her role as Josie Pye in the Netflix series Anne with an E . “I was taught growing up that when you feel a lump in your breast that’s indicative of having breast cancer.”
She immediately scheduled an appointment with her doctor, who recommended an ultrasound and biopsy — and reassured her that the disease was extremely rare among women her age, especially given that she had no family history. A week later, as planned, McKeon flew to San Francisco for a summer program on farming. As the plane was taxiing to the gate, her phone lit up with a text from her doctor.
“I was like, ‘Huh, that’s odd, never do doctors really text you,’ ” says McKeon, who called her right back. “She said I had cancer and that it had already spread to my lymph nodes. It was a really surreal moment. I immediately got emotional, and I remember getting my mom on the phone right away.”
Two hours later McKeon was on a flight back to New Jersey, where a battery of additional tests confirmed she had stage 3 breast cancer. Over the next seven months McKeon endured eight rounds of chemotherapy, a double mastectomy and 25 sessions of radiation — and says now that the grueling experience has changed her life for the better.
“There’s so much good happening in my life as a result of all the hardship,” says the now 22-year-old, who’s been cancer-free since February 2022 and currently lives in New York City. “I’ve become acutely aware of the time that we have on this earth — and that’s something that I’m so grateful for.”
According to the National Cancer Institute, breast cancer is still extremely rare in women ages 15 to 19, with just two cases per million each year. “We don’t typically see breast cancer in that age group,” says Dr. Eleonora Teplinsky, director of breast and gynecologic medical oncology at Valley-Mount Sinai Comprehensive Cancer Care in New Jersey — and McKeon’s oncologist.
Still, the incidence of breast cancer in women under the age of 50 “is especially increasing,” with a 1 to 2 percent rise in recent years, says Teplinsky, adding that “about 10 percent of breast cancer cases will be in women under 45” in 2024.
“Women need to understand that yes, the incidence is rising but not to panic,” adds Teplinsky. “They should talk to their doctors about what their risk is, go for regular screenings and focus on lifestyle ways to reduce their breast cancer risk. These are all things to do to lower individual risk.”