CNN anchor Sara Sidner said she spent 15 distressing days believing her breast cancer may have progressed to incurable stage 4 disease after a PET scan suggested it had spread throughout her body. Subsequent biopsy and blood-test results were negative, bringing relief and underscoring that scan findings require confirmation through further testing.

Sidner, who disclosed a stage 3 breast cancer diagnosis two years earlier, said the scan appeared to show possible cancer in her hip, spine, liver and lungs. She said she and her family were devastated after learning that median survival for stage 4 breast cancer is under five years, but her doctor later told her that “biopsy beats scan” for diagnosis; she received the negative biopsy result by email while at CNN.