Arvada Mayor Lauren Simpson had just gotten past a cancer scare when she got notice last year that she was due for another mammogram.
It hardly seemed worth the time, coming just weeks after follow-up imaging ruled the mass in her left breast that had been detected by the previous year’s mammogram was a benign cyst. But her husband was about to change jobs and insurance companies, requiring the family to find new doctors. She snagged a last-minute appointment at the end of October, figuring the screening would be one less thing to worry about later.
The mammogram she almost skipped and follow-up testing found the supposed cyst was actually a small tumor — and it wasn’t alone. Three other tumors had started growing in her right breast.
“Thank God I did my routine appointment, because if I waited another year, the cancer could have spread,” she said. “I almost didn’t go because, in my mind, I was just on the table two weeks ago.”
Simpson, 42, publicly announced her breast cancer diagnosis at Tuesday night’s Arvada City Council meeting. She said she decided to share her illness to encourage women in her age group to get screened as cancer cases are rising in younger people. She also wanted to get ahead of any speculation if she has to miss city events during her treatment — a problem that already came up when she had to skip a council meeting the day she got a biopsy.
Typically, tumors have irregular edges and show signs of growth over a period of months, while cysts are rounded and stable in size. The original mass had behaved like a cyst, leading her health care provider to conclude it didn’t need a biopsy, Simpson said. The other tumors had apparently developed recently and just broken out of the milk duct, she said.
Arvada Mayor Lauren Simpson talks with second graders at Secrest Elementary School after reading them a story in Arvada, Colorado, on March 2, 2026. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)
All of the tumors remain confined to the breasts, with no signs of cancer in the lymph nodes, which act as filters and are the first place that breast cancer tends to spread. Assuming her upcoming surgery doesn’t reveal any surprises, Simpson said she expects to avoid chemotherapy and radiation, though she’ll likely need hormone therapy to prevent a recurrence.
Not knowing is a challenge for a person who likes to come up with a plan to tackle problems head-on, she said.
“There’s a lot of, if this, then that,” she said.
Most breast cancer cases still involve women over 50, though the rate in younger women has risen about 1% each year since 2012, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Death rates from breast cancer dropped overall during that time, though they remained flat for women under 40.
Other cancer diagnoses have also increased in younger people, though experts disagree on how much is attributable to chemical exposures, obesity or simply finding cancers earlier because they show up on imaging. Since 1992, the rate of cancer cases in people under 50 has doubled for eight types: myeloma, thyroid, anal, kidney, small intestinal, colorectal, pancreatic and endometrial (involving the lining of the uterus).
Relatively early onset breast cancers have a stronger genetic link than those that appear after menopause, particularly when a woman has tumors on both sides, said Dr. Virginia Borges, director of the Young Women’s Breast Cancer Translational Program at the University of Colorado Cancer Center.
She said she couldn’t speak about any individual without seeing their medical records, but would recommend that women who develop breast cancer in their 40s get checked for 11 genes that increase their risk. People who have a gene increasing their cancer risk may need more monitoring for recurrences or additional cancers, and may want to encourage family members to get tested.
Arvada Mayor Lauren Simpson, right, meets with Arvada City Manager Don Wick over breakfast at Snooze in Arvada, Colorado, on March 2, 2026. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)
“That said, 85% of breast cancer, even in younger ages, will not be found to have that hereditary component,” she said.
No one knows why breast cancer cases are increasing in younger women, though a shift to later births could be one factor, Borges said. While giving birth and breastfeeding decrease the odds of getting breast cancer after menopause, the risk actually rises in the decade after having a child, so mothers need to monitor their breasts and get checked if something seems wrong, she said.
Yet the cancer rate is also going up in women in their 20s who haven’t had children, so delayed reproduction isn’t the full story, Borges said. Researchers are exploring whether excessive alcohol consumption, lack of exercise or certain chemical exposures could also play a role, but women who hike 14ers and don’t drink are also getting sick, she said.
“I take care of plenty of young patients where I have no idea why they’ve gotten diagnosed with breast cancer,” she said.
Next Tuesday, Simpson is scheduled to have a mastectomy on the side with three tumors and a lump removal on the other, with reconstructive surgery to move fat and an artery from her abdomen to replace the removed breast. (She joked that if she didn’t reveal her diagnosis upfront, constituents might think she’d gotten a “mommy makeover” and be angry when she isn’t at the late March council meeting.) Getting an implant would offer a faster recovery, but that can bring later complications, including a small increase in the risk of a second cancer.
Keeping one breast leaves a small chance that the cancer will return, but Simpson said the possibility was worth it to her to avoid numbness across much of her chest from having the nerves removed along with the mammary tissue. She spoke to survivors and read about their experiences online, and each person had different priorities and risk tolerance, she said.
Arvada Mayor Lauren Simpson goes through emails in her office at Arvada City Hall in Arvada, Colorado, on March 2, 2026. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)
“What stuck with me is, one woman said, ‘I can’t feel when my grandchildren hug me.’ I need to feel my daughter hug me,” said Simpson, who has a 9-year-old named Tabitha.
Fortunately, the surgery coincides with Jeffco Public Schools’ spring break, so Tabitha is going to visit her grandparents during those first days, when Simpson expects to be out of commission from the 10-hour surgery and the painkillers she’ll likely need afterwards.
They haven’t gone into all the details, but her daughter understands that she has cancer and needs the surgery to remove it, Simpson said.
Simpson hopes to be back for the April 7 council meeting, though she plans to let Mayor Pro Tempore Randy Moorman handle the state of the city address on April 10. Skipping that speech is a bit disappointing, since it offers a chance to highlight the city’s accomplishments and offer a dose of positivity people crave in a difficult political landscape, she said.
They’re writing the speech together and Simpson plans to introduce Moorman, but Councilwoman Shawna Ambrose convinced her that standing for an hour might be too much after a major surgery, she said. (Ambrose, who represents Arvada District 2, also set up a meal train to ensure she focuses on her recovery.)
“I may be walking with a cane, but I should be walking” by early April, she said.
Simpson is encouraging women in their 40s to get an initial mammogram, even if they don’t have an alarming family history. She didn’t test positive for any genes linked strongly to cancer, and the only potentially relevant cases in her family were her late father’s prostate cancer and a great-grandmother’s breast cancer.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends that women at average risk get a mammogram every other year starting at 40, while the American Cancer Society recommends annual screenings starting at 45, with the option to begin at 40.
A recent trial suggested different schedules could make sense, with higher-risk women getting more frequent screening and the lowest-risk group delaying their first mammogram until 50.
“I have a whole new appreciation for how important (screening) is because I’m asymptomatic,” Simpson said. “I thought I was fine. Turns out I wasn’t. But now, I’m going to be.”
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