Wanda Sykes had a double mastectomy; talks about it on Monday's 'Ellen'

On Monday's (Sept. 26) "Ellen," comedian/actress Wanda Sykes talks about her brush with breast cancer. Sykes discovered she had the disease when she went in for a breast reduction.

"It wasn't until after the reduction that in the lab work, the pathology, that they found that I had DCIS [ductal carcinoma in situ] in my left breast," Sykes explains. "I was very, very lucky because DCIS is basically stage-zero cancer. So I was very lucky."

Rather than risk a potential spread of the disease, Sykes elected to have a bilateral mastectomy.

"I had both breasts removed," she says. "Because now I have zero chance of having breast cancer."

Sykes says she wasn't sure about making the news public.

"I was like, I don't know, should I talk about it or what? How many things could I have? I'm Black, then Lesbian. I can't be the poster child for everything."