PR queen Roxy Jacenko has been diagnosed with breast cancer just three weeks after her husband Oliver Curtis was jailed for insider trading. Courtesy: Today Show

WHEN Sydney PR executive Roxy Jacenko announced that she has been diagnosed with breast cancer, she claimed that stress could have played a role in her condition.

The 36-year-old founder of Sweaty Better PR has had a rough few weeks.

Her husband Oliver Curtis is currently serving time at Parklea Correctional Centre in Sydney’s west, after being convicted of insider trading last month. He was sentenced to a maximum of two years in prison but will be released after one year on a good behaviour bond.

The couple have two children — Pixie, 4, and Hunter, 2 — and Jacenko is now a single mother.

She will soon undergo surgery to have a partial removal of the lump in her left breast, which she discovered while showering last week. Ten days later, she will know how far the cancer has progressed.

“The timing is extraordinary,” Jacenko told The Daily Telegraph of her diagnosis. “What I have experienced in the past three weeks is the most shocking thing I have ever experienced. I don’t think there is anything that could shock me more now.

“I am heartbroken but the reality of it is if this [Curtis going to prison] hadn’t have happened, there is nothing to say I wouldn’t have got this [cancer],” she said.

“Could this [Curtis’ jailing] have added to it? You know what? I am not going to say no. Of course, I think any added aggro in someone’s life can lead to things like this but it is no fault of Oli’s. It is in my family, my mum had it.” Jacenko’s mother Doreen Davis underwent a mastectomy a decade ago.

Jacenko is a shameless workaholic and has previously admitted that Curtis is usually the primary carer of their children. She famously returned to work just hours after giving birth to both Pixie and Hunter.

But the Cancer Council Australia CEO Professor Sanchia Aranda says there is no evidence to suggest stress causes breast cancer.

“Breast cancer is actually the cancer where there’s been the most research about this topic,” Prof Aranda told news.com.au.

“But in more than 10 studies that have examined the link between stress and the risk of breast cancer, no cause and effect has been found.”

Stress and cancer are often linked because some studies show that stress upsets the immune system, and a damaged immune system can increase the risk of cancer.

“The immune system does mop up those very early changes that occur in cells that are the precursors of cancer,” Prof Aranda said. “But that’s at a very early stage at a cellular level, not at the point where the cancer is a lump.”

Jacenko later contradicted her original statement, saying: “There is no proof to say that stress brings this kind of things on. I don’t slow down.”

Jacenko also admitted that she thought she was too young to have to worry about breast cancer.

“I thought from reading all the information out there I was meant to wait until 40 until I got a mammogram,” she told The Daily Telegraph.

The majority of women with breast cancer are aged 50-69, according to 2012 data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, but it’s not unusual for women under 40 to be diagnosed.

“36 is quite young to have breast cancer,” Prof Aranda said. “There’s a 10 per cent chance she could carry the BRCA1 gene [55-65 per cent of women with this gene will develop breast cancer], but having a family history doesn’t necessarily mean you carry the defective gene,” she said.

Krystal Barter is the founder of the Pink Hope foundation, an organisation which educates women about preventing hereditary breast and ovarian cancer, and a close friend of Jacenko’s.

“She’s a great girl and she’s been a big supporter of ours for a long time now,” Barter told news.com.au.

“I know the community is shocked and she’s going through a lot at the moment. With everything that’s happening in her personal life, you can’t help but feel sorry for her. Life can be really cruel and unfair.

“She is proactive in every part of her life and I have no doubt that being on top of her health is a top priority,” she said.

Ms Barter carries the BRCA1 gene and has undergone apreventive double mastectomy and had her fallopian tubes and ovaries removed. Her great grandmother, grandmother and mother all had breast cancer.

“I think breast cancer screening should be taught in high school,” she said. “We’re having conversations with women before 40, because that’s when it’s critical they know what’s normal for them. They need to know their risk.”

Ms Barter hopes Jacenko’s popularity among young women will encourage them to be vigilant about screening for breast cancer.

“She could be a life saver. She’s got such a high profile and she’s an empowered and strong woman. The amount of people who are going to be looking to her, young women especially, is incredible.”

rebecca.sullivan@news.com.au