Sheryl Crow (diagnosed 2006 at 44)

“I am a walking advertisement for early detection,” Sheryl Crow said in October 2006 about catching suspicious calcifications in both of her breasts on a routine mammogram. The rocker immediately postponed a tour, went into surgery, and had seven weeks of INVALID ARTICLE ID, supplemented with acupuncture and herbal teas. Crow—whose engagement to cyclist Lance Armstrong ended around the time she was diagnosed—was able to skipchemotherapy because her cancer was caught so early. In March 2007, Crow (who has no close family history of breast cancer) petitioned Congress to fund research into possible links between breast cancer and environmental factors.

Cynthia Nixon (diagnosed 2006 at 40)

 Sex and the City star Cynthia Nixon was hesitant to reveal that a cancerous tumor had been discovered in her right breast during a routine mammogram. Nixon, best known for playing the responsible Miranda Hobbes, didn't want her condition to become public during her treatment. “I didn’t want paparazzi at the hospital, that kind of thing,” Nixon told the New York Daily News after treating her cancer with alumpectomy and radiation. But Nixon, whose mother also survived breast cancer, decided to tell her story when she realized it might serve as an inspiration for other women at risk.