Tennis Pro Gabriela Dabrowski Says Doctor Initially Dismissed Lump in Her Breast: 'Things Turned Grim Very Quickly'

• Canadian tennis pro Gabriela Dabrowski said that her prognosis “turned grim” after a doctor initially dismissed a lump in her breast as “nothing”
• She’s sharing her health journey to encourage women to get “checked”
• Dabrowski says breast cancer is “survivable” and says she’s “super grateful” that she was able to handle her cancer quickly

Tennis pro Gabriela Dabrowski — who won an Olympic bronze medal while undergoing treatment for breast cancer — shared that her prognosis “turned grim” after she was originally told the lump in her breast “was nothing.”  

Dabrowski, 32, previously shared that she initially felt a lump during a self-exam in the spring of 2023. “A few months later, a doctor told me it was nothing and not to worry. So I didn’t,” she wrote on Instagram.

But during a physical with the Women’s Tennis Association a year later, a doctor noticed the lump and advised her to get it checked out further, Dabrowski told CNN. From there, “it turned grim very quickly.” 

“I eventually got good news after good news after good news in terms of my staging, the size of the tumor, my Oncotype DX scoring which determines if you need chemo or not,” the Canadian pro told the outlet.

She continued: “I didn’t need chemo because my score was low enough and I didn’t have any spread through my lymph nodes. So I kind of was just in this mode of, ‘Okay, this was scary, but I’m also super grateful that I’m handling this quickly, and I’m still at an early stage.’ ”

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Dabroski underwent two surgeries, radiation and endocrine therapy — all scheduled around the Paris Olympics, Wimbledon, and the Canadian and US Open, where she and doubles partner Erin Routliffe were scheduled to compete.

Although she didn’t disclose her diagnosis until after the Olympics, Dabroswki told the outlet that she’s talking about her health journey because “I really wanted women to be able to know that, even though something like cancer is scary, if you get whatever you have checked out early, you can handle it. Breast cancer has a 99% chance of survival.”

“And that was the first messaging that I saw on the flyer when I walked into the office for my mammogram,” she said. “Breast cancer is 99% survivable.”