Amanda Peet reveals breast cancer diagnosis

Amanda Peet was diagnosed with breast cancer as her parents lay dying.

The Whole Nine Yards actor revealed the news in an essay for the New Yorker, detailing how she received the news in the autumn of last year.

"For many years, I've been told that I have 'dense' and 'busy' breasts, not as a compliment but as a warning that they require extra monitoring," she wrote.

"I had been seeing a breast surgeon every six months for checkups. The Friday before Labour Day, I went for what I thought would be a routine scan."

According to Peet, her doctor "didn't like the way something looked" and sent her off for a biopsy.

"After the procedure, she said that she would walk the sample over to Cedars-Sinai and hand-deliver it to pathology. That's when I knew," Peet penned.

At the same time, the Your Friends & Neighbours actor shared that her parents were both in hospice care.

"Our parents, long divorced, were both in hospice, on opposite coasts. Our mother's had started in June, but our father's was only a week in, so we hadn't expected him to go first. I flew to New York. I didn't make it before my father took his last breath."

Doctors then discovered a second benign mass in Peet's breast, requiring a lumpectomy and radiation as treatment. She received her first clear scan in January of this year.

Peet's mother died later that same month.