How Ananda Lewis discovered she had breast cancer — and the regrets she had about her treatment plan

Ananda Lewis, a staple of MTV’s golden era, died this week after a lengthy battle with breast cancer. She was 52.

In the years leading up to her death, the beloved TV personality stirred controversy by opting for alternative treatments instead of a doctor-recommended double mastectomy — a decision she stood by until the end, though not without some regrets. 

“Do everything in your power to avoid my story becoming yours,” Lewis wrote in a candid essay for Essence published in January, reflecting on the choices she made both during her illness and long before cancer entered her life.

Lewis discovered a lump in her right breast while showering in December 2018. It was slightly larger than a pea and located where she’d often experienced mastitis while breastfeeding her son.

The former MTV Video jockey and TV host hoped it was nothing — but a biopsy the following month revealed stage III breast cancer that had already spread to her lymph nodes.

“For a really long time, I have refused mammograms, and that was a mistake,” Lewis shared on Instagram when she went public with her diagnosis in October 2020.

“If I had done the mammograms from the time they were recommended, when I turned 40, they would have caught the tumor in my breast years before I caught it through my own self-exam,” she continued.

Despite the advanced stage, Lewis chose to face the diagnosis her way.

“My approach in life is to deal with things head-on as they happen,” she wrote in Essence. “So instead of panicking, I made a game plan.”

After seeing her mother and cousin go through traditional cancer treatment, she turned down doctors’ advice to undergo surgery to remove both her breasts, along with possible chemotherapy and radiation.

“My plan at first was to get out excessive toxins in my body,” Lewis told CNN in an October 2024 interview. “I decided to keep my tumor and try to work it out of my body in a different way.”

She later admitted she had doubts about her decision. “Looking back on that, I go, ‘You know what? Maybe I should have,’” she said.

Instead, she dove into research and overhauled her lifestyle, focusing on diet, detoxes and natural healing.

“My goal was to do things that supported my body’s ability to continue to be whole enough to heal, instead of destroying it up front,” Lewis wrote in Essence.

She received monthly ultrasounds from a breast surgeon to track the tumor and committed to a mix of alternative therapies, including high-dose vitamin C IVs, hyperbaric chamber sessions, qigong, energy work and prayer.

Progress was steady — until the COVID-19 pandemic hit. California shut down, and Lewis could no longer access her treatments or scans. “By the summer of 2020, I felt the tumor growing again,” she wrote.

With limited options in California, she traveled to Arizona, where medical clinics remained open. There, she underwent 16 weeks of integrative treatment, including acupuncture, cryoablation, and low-dose chemo.

The results were promising: her cancer dropped from stage III to stage II, it cleared from her lymph nodes, and her tumor shrank.

But the cost was steep. Without insurance, Lewis couldn’t keep up the treatments back home and had to pause care for more than two years while supporting herself and her son.

By October 2023, her cancer had progressed to stage IV.

She re-entered treatment at an integrative clinic in Southern California. After 12 weeks, by January 2024, her condition had improved significantly. But the toll of years without consistent care weighed on her.

“Am I in the clear? No,” she wrote. “But I could have ended up here no matter what route I took, because I didn’t come in with the resources that I needed to stay the course the whole time.”

Doctors generally advise against skipping surgery for breast cancer — especially in earlier stages.

“In stage I to III breast cancer, which is curable, there’s no scenario that we can skip surgery altogether,” Dr. Stephanie Downs-Canner, a breast surgeon at Memorial Sloan Kettering, told Health.

Research consistently shows that women who refuse surgery have lower five-year survival rates and are more likely to die from the disease.

Still, Lewis remained firm in her convictions.

“I understand that people don’t get it,” she told host Shameika Rhymes on Soulibration in October 2024. “I still feel like I did the right thing. I need women to learn from my mistakes. I need them to learn from my victories.”

Lewis also said she regretted ignoring factors she now believes contributed to her illness — from chronic stress to poor nutrition and skipped screenings.

“If I had known what I know now 10 years ago, perhaps I wouldn’t have ended up here,” she wrote in Essence. “I would’ve been doing all the things I’ve been forced to do now, to keep my body from creating more cancer and remove what it has already made.”

She urged women to manage stress, sleep well, stay active, get enough vitamin D, hydrate, eat clean and avoid environmental toxins.

“Increase your knowledge about how to prevent getting here in the first place,” Lewis wrote. “Prevention is the real cure.”

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among US women after skin cancer, with one in eight expected to develop it in their lifetime. Rates are rising, especially among younger women and those who are Asian American or Pacific Islander, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS).

Despite major advances in treatment and early detection, breast cancer remains the second leading cause of cancer death among women — behind only lung cancer.

Black women are disproportionately affected, facing higher mortality rates at every age.

In 2025, the ACS expects 316,950 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in the US, and 42,170 women will die from the disease.

Most major medical groups recommend women at average risk start annual mammograms at 40, according to breastcancer.org. 

Those at higher risk — due to family history, genetics, or other factors — are generally advised to begin annual mammograms at 30 and breast MRIs between ages 25 and 35.