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This year, more than 1.3 million women worldwide will hear the words "you have breast cancer" --

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four words that will change their lives forever.

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That single moment will become a turning point, the start of a tenacious battle against a killer.

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The day she heard those four words, Martina Navratilova cried.

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A woman who defected from Czechoslovakia at the age of 18, bravely blazed the trail for homosexual acceptance,

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a woman who many considered the best tennis player who ever lived, now braced for the fight of her life.

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Navratilova dominated the competition in the late '70s, '80s and early '90s.

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She won the Wimbledon singles title a record nine times.

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With 59 grand slam tennis titles, she has more titles than any other man or woman.

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Well, I had a mammogram in January and they said I need to come back for a closer look.

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In February I went back and they magnified it.

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They said, "Well, there's a cluster. Probably do a biopsy just to be sure."

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First I went to Denver to get the biopsy on a Tuesday and they said, "Ah, it looks pretty good. Should be nothing."

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Wednesday, my doctor Mindy, who is a very good friend of mine, calls me and says, "Are you sitting down?"

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And I'm like, "Uh, why?" She said, "Well, it came back positive."

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Navratilova was struck with the most common type of non-invasive breast cancer.

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Intraductal cancer is also known as ductal carcinoma in situ, often referred to as DCIS for short.

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The word "carcinoma" means it begins in the skin or tissue, like breast tissue.

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This cancer starts inside the milk ducts. In Navratilova's case, the news is encouraging,

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because the cancer is isolated and had not spread to the surrounding tissue.

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But like more than a million women worldwide, the diagnosis came as a shock.

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She didn't feel sick at all. She was the picture of health and fitness.

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On March 15, Navratilova, surrounded by her support team traveled to the U.S. state of Colorado

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for the first stage of her treatment -- a lumpectomy.

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A lumpectomy is a surgical procedure to remove the lump along with some of the tissue that surrounds the area.

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It's a breast preserving surgery, far less radical than a mastectomy in which a lot of breast tissue is removed.

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The surgery typically takes between 15 and 40 minutes, and scarring is minimal,

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but the lumpectomy is only one step on the journey to become cancer free.

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The next stage of Navratilova's treatment, radiation, will begin on May 12. Radiation therapy,

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also called radio therapy, is a highly targeted, effective way to destroy microscopic tumors that may have escaped surgery.

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In Navratilova's case, she will receive radiation therapy four to five times a week for six weeks.

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One side-effect of radiation therapy is exhaustion caused as the body works to repair damage to healthy cells.

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Typically fatigue occurs in the later weeks of treatment.

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My worst day by far of the six weeks was Friday of the fourth week, which was the day off.

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I think we played Thursday and we played Saturday,

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and Friday I went to hit and I was so tired I lasted about 15 minutes.

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I had to stop. I had no energy. And I thought...and it gets worse, usually.

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She was in pain. She was very tired and I felt like she maybe might pass out or something like this.

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I was very scared for her.

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Yeah, it was nice to win. I played better at the second set.

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I was really tired in the first set -- wasn't seeing the ball.

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Then I warmed up, so to speak, and played better and Jana played well.

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June 16, the day Martina Navratilova had looked forward to for a while,

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the day of her last radiation treatment.

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Like all women who have been diagnosed with cancer,

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she will see her doctor regularly for follow-ups to ensure there is no recurrence.

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She'll also have a mammogram every six months.

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I think a lot of people still thought that I had...you know, there was still much more serious surgery

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and then chemo and all this and it was "just radiation," just radiation,

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so I really feel like I escaped, you know, the big C.

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It's a very scary word, but I learned a lot and, you know,

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I hope I don't have to go through something like that for a long time, but if it happens again, I'll be ready.