CLEVELAND (AP) -- Nearly five months after she found a lump in her breast, a doctor rescued from the South Pole confirmed that she has cancer, and she will undergo treatment.
Dr. Jerri Nielsen, 47, continued to shy away from international attention, saying she would not grant any interview requests."The diagnosis of breast cancer has been confirmed, and I will undergo treatment. My spirit is strong," Nielsen said Tuesday in her first public statement since returning to the United States on Sunday.
"It's good to be back with my family and friends in the United States," she said in the statement issued through the National Science Foundation.
Nielsen, of the Youngstown, Ohio, area, treated herself with chemotherapy until she was rescued Saturday from the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Research Center.
The only doctor among the 41 researchers at the station, Nielsen discovered a lump in her breast in June. She had medical supplies dropped to her a month later during a daring mercy mission.
The supplies allowed her to perform her own biopsy and begin self-treatment with chemotherapy. She e-mailed photographs of slide samples of the tumor to doctors in the United States.
Despite her illness, Nielsen kept busy with her duties up until she left the South Pole, said her sister-in-law, Diana Cahill.
Nielsen's rescue from the coldest place on Earth was possible only after the Antarctic winter relented slightly, making it warm enough -- 58 degrees below zero -- to risk the flight.
Officials said the rescue operation was possibly the earliest ever post-winter flight to the South Pole.
In her statement, Nielsen thanked those who rescued her and helped with her treatment.
"My heartfelt thanks go out to my South Pole friends, colleagues and the general public for their encouragement and best wishes during my ordeal," she said.