Breast Cancer Survivor Robin Roberts Tears Up On ‘GMA’ While Discussing Major Cancer Research Breakthrough: “There Was No One For Me”

Good Morning America anchor Robin Roberts became emotional during Thursday’s (Jan. 18) broadcast while discussing the groundbreaking advancements being made in cancer research.

Roberts, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007, teared up as she shared that new research suggests that blood stem cell donors may not necessarily have to be a perfect match in order to donate. The anchor shared the amazing story of a nine-year-old girl who received a life-saving blood stem cell transplant in 2022 from a “partially matched optimal donor” after doctors warned her that it would be “difficult” to find a perfect match for her because of her ethnicity.

Roberts became emotional as she recounted her own battle with cancer.

“One of the most crucial things about this research is that not needing a fully matched donor helps address the ethnic disparities in getting that crucial transplant, because I remember…” she said before taking a pause as her eyes welled up with tears. “When I got my transplant, my sister was a perfect match. And that only happens 70 percent of the time. They didn’t even look through the registry, there was no one for me. So if my sister had not been a match…”

“Now, 10 years later, it’s amazing. I just know the families, it gives them hope,” she said.

The show highlighted that this major breakthrough could particularly impact people of color, who are less likely to find a perfect-match donor than white patients.

“About 70% of patients don’t have a fully matched donor in their family, and then, when they search registries, the odds range from about 30 to 80 percent depending on their ethnic background,” Roberts explained during the segment. “But now, thanks to brand new research, those odds, thank goodness, are improving.”

In a tweet Robins wrote ahead of the GMA segment, she said that she was “blessed” her sister was a match for her stem cell transplant.

The GMA anchor has continued reporting on advancements in blood stem cell transplants since she received her transplant in September 2012.

She and Lara Spencer recently shared an emotional moment on the show after announcing David Geffen and Ken Griffin’s historic $400 million donation to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Roberts also recently sat down with her co-anchor Michael Strahan to break the shocking news that his 19-year-old daughter, Isabella, recently began her own battle with cancer.

Good Morning America airs weekdays at 7 a.m. ET on ABC.