Kristen Dahlgren of NBC Is Cancer-Free after Radiation Treatment

NBC News correspondent Kristen Dahlgren is filled with gratitude as she announced being “done” with breast cancer and its lengthy treatment.

On Wednesday, NBC’s Kristen Dahlgren excitedly took to social media to announce that she won the battle against cancer and give heartfelt thanks to medical personnel that made it possible.

Following surgery, eight rounds of chemotherapy, and twenty-five rounds of radiation, Kristen is cancer-free, as she shared alongside a picture of herself wearing a face mask.

“No hugs or high 5’s... not even a bell to ring because of #COVID,” Kristen wrote. “But tears of gratitude for the #HealthcareHeroes who helped me through and all of the support I received. #THANKYOU #cancerfree.”

Kristen’s gratitude also extends to the way she initially found out about her diagnosis in September 2019.

Crediting a story she did about cancer back in 2016, the NBC correspondent said that it gave her the additional information to know something was wrong when she turned 47, and what to do about it.

With no family history of early breast cancer, Kristen thought herself to be at “low risk.” Keeping active and being in her 40s, she had a mammogram as early as April 2019 - which came back negative for abnormalities.

However, when Kristen got ready to go out on her 47th birthday, she noticed an odd dent that “just felt different” than the rest of her right breast.

In the research she did for the story in 2016, Kristen learned more about the disease, including additional symptoms to look out for beside the presentation of lumps. She also found out that mammograms can be “only 87% effective” when done on women with dense breast tissue like herself.

Armed with that knowledge, Kristen knew that she should have the dent checked out. A few days later, doctors told her that she had Stage 2 breast cancer.

Shortly after her diagnosis, Kristen began four months of chemotherapy followed by surgery early his year, and a five-week course of radiation that began in March.

Having candidly shared her story, advocating for women to empower themselves with knowledge about the disease, Kristen hopes that it could help save the lives of others as it saved hers as she said:

"If this story saved me, how many other women are out there that need this? This is more common than we appreciate."

Relatedly, in their bid to give back amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, NBC, ABC, and CBS, and other competing television networks joined forces to raise money in the fight against the disease on April 18.

All the participating networks came together to broadcast their event called "One World: Together At Home," which featured how people from all different walks of life affected by COVID-19 came together while also showing support to those on the frontlines.