*Tina Knowles, mother of Beyoncé and Solange, recently shared her breast cancer battle to urge women to prioritize mammograms.
Diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer in July 2024, the 71-year-old shared the shocking news while promoting her memoir “Matriarch” in a new interview with PEOPLE. “It’s important not to slack on your mammograms,” Knowles said, emphasizing early detection’s critical role. She revealed missing a mammogram during Covid disruptions, later realizing, “I forgot that I didn’t go to get my test two years before I thought I had.”
“I struggled with whether I would share that journey [in the book] because I’m very private. But I decided to share it because I think it’s a lot of lessons in it for other women,” she said. “And I think as women, sometimes we get so busy and we get so wrapped up and running around, but you must go get your test. Because if I had not gotten my test early, I mean, I shudder to think what could have happened to me.”
In “Matriarch,” Knowles describes her daughters’ responses to her diagnosis. Beyoncé “took it well, staying positive,” while Solange reassured, “Mom, we are going to take care of this.” Supported by her “team” of family, including Kelly Rowland and niece Angie Beyince, Knowles underwent tumor removal surgery and a breast reduction late last year. Now cancer-free, she feels “incredibly blessed that God allowed me to find it early.”
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Knowles, whose family has no history of breast cancer and who tested negative for related genes, learned her ex-husband, Mathew Knowles, also battled the disease, linked to the BRCA2 gene mutation. Reflecting on her journey, she stresses the importance of screenings, noting, “I didn’t know that there was a stage 0. I could have caught this at stage 0 if I had not missed my mammogram.”
Researchers propose that Black women should undergo screening earlier to counter infection and reduce breast cancer mortality. Breast cancer mostly affects women over 50, according to cancer.org. The majority of women who die from breast cancer in the US are over the age of 70. Several studies suggest that Black women should begin screening for breast cancer at the age of 42 rather than 50.
“The take-home message for U.S. clinicians and health policymakers is simple. Clinicians and radiologists should consider race and ethnicity when determining the age at which breast cancer screening should begin,” Dr. Mahdi Fallah, an author of the new study and leader of Risk Adapted Cancer Prevention Group at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg, Germany, told CNN.
“Also, health policymakers can consider a risk-adapted approach to breast cancer screening to address racial disparities in breast cancer mortality, especially the mortality before the recommended age of population screening,” said Fallah.
“We are in the process of updating our breast cancer screening guidelines, and we are examining the scientific literature for how screening guidelines could differ for women in different racial and ethnic groups, and by other risk factors, in a way that would reduce disparities based on risk and disparities in outcome,” Robert Smith, senior vice president for cancer screening at the American Cancer Society, said in an email to CNN.
Meanwhile, Knowles is aiming to inspire others by showing “you can go through that and still be fly.”
Her message is clear: don’t delay screenings, and live each day fully. “What scares me now is not making the best of every day that I have left in this life,” she adds, hoping to give others hope through her story.
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