Giuliana Rancic's Top Tips for Preventing Breast Cancer

by Brittany Risher

While she's normally telling you the hottest fashion trends (while looking impeccably gorgeous herself) and which stars were seen smooching last night, Giuliana Rancic is also getting out the message about breast cancer and the importance of doing monthly self-exams.

"I thought to myself, 'God, I have such an amazing platform here. All these young girls watch me on TV, and if my story can inspire them to go get checked and to take breast cancer seriously and to know it can happen to a young girl without a family history-if it can happen to me, it can happen to you-then that's my responsibility, I have to do it,'" the Fashion Police and E! News host says. "And I love being able to give information that could save someone's life."

Below she shares four things she wants every woman to know.

Youth Doesn't Protect You
"I think most women almost don't want to find out if they have breast cancer. They don't want to go to the doctor. They're riding high on life, everything's great, they have a new relationship and new career, and think, 'I don't want to know if anything is wrong with me. I must be healthy, I don't feel sick.' But you have to go to the doctor once a year to have him give you an exam, and you have to have an early detection plan."

RELATED: Rancic isn't the only one doing her part to help others. Check out these 10 celebrity breast cancer survivors who are raising awareness.

You Can Find Cancer
"We think that we're not qualified enough to find our own breast cancer; we feel like, 'I have no idea what to look for, am I even going to know?' so we don't even bother doing it. But I'm telling you, you know. Chances are you're going to find nothing, but if you're feeling around and you feel something that feels like a pea or something just doesn't feel right, and you have it on one side, but not the other, just go get it checked. It's likely just something like a fibroid, but if you're one of those 1 in 8 women who are going to get breast cancer, you need to know early to have a high survival rate. You could be saving your own life."

Cancer Is Not a Death Sentence
"If you can find breast cancer early, you have a 98-percent five-year survival rate, which is unbelievable. When I heard I had breast cancer, I thought I was going to die of it, which is obviously a daunting thought. And the doctor said, no, you're probably not going to die. You could be in the 98 percent. So I thought, 'Wait a second, there's only a 2 percent chance I'm not going to survive? Wow, that's pretty great!' It changed everything."

RELATED: For even more info, including how to perform a self-exam, see our Breast Cancer Awareness 2012 page.

Staying Active Helps
"After the surgery [a double mastectomy], as soon as the doctor said I could start taking walks around the neighborhood, I did. They were little walks, really short walks: I'd start at 5 minutes, then I got to 10 minutes and 15 minutes. And it was those little walks every day that I contribute to healing quickly. It's a mental thing. You feel like, 'I'm getting better, I'm going to make a comeback.' And I did. I was back at work in two weeks and I think a lot of that had to do with emotionally healing from those little walks I would take. I started at 5 minutes and went up to 45 minutes."

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