'Boy Meets World' star says she's been diagnosed with a form of breast cancer that's curable

Danielle Fishel, who played Topanga Lawrence in the teen sitcom "Boy Meets World," has a curable form of breast cancer.

In a story by Annabelle Timsit in today's editions of The Washington Post, Fishel urged other women to get their mammograms, or breast cancer screenings, to catch any issues early.

Danielle Fischel

The diagnosis, Fishel disclosed, is that she has DCIS (ductal carcinoma in situ), which affects more than 55,000 women in the United States each year but usually is noninvasive and curable. 

The 43-year-old Fischel, who now also uses the name Fishel-Park, having added her second husband, a comedian, to the appellation, says she's having surgery to remove the abnormal cells and will receive "some follow-up treatment," according to Timsit's story.

The Post piece also quotes the television star as saying that "the only reason I caught this cancer when it is still Stage 0 is because the day I got my text message that my yearly mammogram had come up, I made the  appointment."

Cancers are rated from 0, the least dangerous form of the disease, to 4, the most advanced (and normally deadly).

The Cleveland Clinic maintains that "DCIS accounts for up to a quarter  of all new cancer diagnoses," the story adds.

Although modern medical imaging technology "has made it possible to detect DCIS whereas it would typically go undetected before and could in some cases turn into invasive and deadly forms of breast cancer," the article continues, Nigel Bundred, an emeritus professor of surgical oncology at Manchester University, emphasizes that DCIS can recur "and turn into invasive breast cancer and therefore requires close monitoring and, in many cases, treatment."

To learn more about DCIS, buy Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his wife's breast cancer, a VitalityPress book that I, Woody Weingarten, aimed at male caregivers.