Utah mom's breast cancer diagnosis highlights importance of screening

SALT LAKE CITY — Dani Kurtz was weeks away from her scheduled mammogram when she noticed something.

"I discovered a lump in my right armpit," she said of the January 2025 discovery. Her mammogram came back normal, but the lump still concerned her.

"Women who have dense tissue are often told that a mammogram may not catch tumors that are there," she said.

Dense breast tissue can make cancer harder to see on a mammogram because both dense tissue and tumors appear white on the scan.

Kurtz's mother had also recently been diagnosed with breast cancer. Additional testing, including an ultrasound and MRI, revealed seven tumors across both breasts.

A biopsy confirmed the diagnosis.

"That was the day I heard those words, 'You have cancer,'" Kurtz said.

Kurtz, a former labor and delivery nurse at Intermountain Healthcare's Utah Valley Hospital who now works in human resources for the health system, found herself on the other side of patient care. She underwent a bilateral mastectomy, followed by 16 rounds of chemotherapy and radiation, finishing treatment in late 2025.

"It did come to an end — there was a day when I didn't think it would, but it did," she said.

Now, she's encouraging other women to make time for their own health.

"As women and moms and wives, we often pour our energy into caring for everyone else. And sometimes we neglect ourselves," she said. "In addition to getting mammograms and other screenings, it's just important to know our bodies."

For Kurtz, that means speaking up when something feels different.

"Talk with your doctor, and they'll ask you more questions and decide if anything needs to be looked into," she said.

"Mammography saves lives. We see it every day," said Dr. Jonathan Shakespear, the medical director at Intermountain Medical Center's Breast Care Center.

He said busy schedules can often keep women from getting screened.

About 63.8% of Utah women aged 40 or older have had a mammogram in the last two years, according to the Utah Department of Health and Human Services.

The state aims to increase breast cancer screening to 81% by 2030.

"We can't predict who it's going to happen to. We can't predict when it's going to happen. All we can do is hope to find it when it's early and easy to treat," Shakespear said. "Some women feel a little sheepish if it's been a couple of years coming in to get a mammogram. Getting mammograms infrequently is better than getting mammograms not at all."

Intermountain Health has introduced an online scheduling tool that lets women compare available screening mammogram appointments at nearby facilities and book online.

Shakespear said the tool may help women find an appointment sooner by looking beyond their usual location.

"We want to make getting a mammogram as convenient as possible," he said. "There may be a two-week wait at one location, and they may look at another location and they can get in the next day."

Women can access the scheduling portal through the mammography section of Intermountain's website.

For Kurtz, life after treatment comes with a different perspective.

"We have a saying in our family that we can become bitter or we can become better for what we go through," she said. "And in that new norm, I just want to make sure that I'm better for it and appreciate what we have, and look at life with a new lens of gratitude for not what isn't, but what is."

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