There was hardly any time between Lucy Liu feeling a lump on her breast and heading into surgery. In her family, Liu says she was taught that doctors always knows best. She scheduled a procedure to remove the lump that same week.
But when her breast cancer scare turned out to be a misdiagnosis, her perception of health care flipped inside out.
"There was not a lot of research done behind it," she tells USA TODAY, reflecting on the experience decades later. "There was not a lot of asking around. Now, I would ask a million questions and I would not be embarrassed about it."
Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States, exceeded only by heart disease, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but early detection by mammography screening has contributed to a decline in breast cancer death rates, according to 2025-2026 data from the American Cancer Society.
After discovering her surgery had been unnecessary, Liu says she learned about routine screening and diagnostic tools – ultrasounds, biopsies, mammograms.
