Days of Our Lives star Kassie DePaiva announced that she’s now cancer-free after back-to-back battles with leukemia and breast cancer.
DePaiva, 62, opened up about her health struggles during a recent interview on Soap Opera Digest’s “Dishing With Digest.” While she previously shared her leukemia diagnosis with fans, DePaiva revealed that she was also diagnosed with breast cancer about one year after finding out she had acute myeloid leukemia, which is a cancer of the blood and bone marrow.
DePaiva’s health battles began in July 2016 when she discovered “little knots” under her arm while on a break from her role as Eve Donovan on Days of Our Lives. A biopsy confirmed that she had leukemia, and she began undergoing chemotherapy.
“I did get breast cancer a year later,” DePaiva added. “I laugh and am like, ‘Can you believe it?’ But I had a lumpectomy and everything was clear, and so, right now, as it stands, I’m cancer-free and happy.”
She went on to say that she felt “so awful” during her chemotherapy treatments. “It’s not day to day, it’s minute to minute,” DePaiva explained. “You think, OK, I’m gonna be good,’ and then you get up and all of a sudden your body eliminates. … I mean it was, are you faint or are you gonna throw up? It’s just yucky.”
Eventually, however, there was a light at the end of the tunnel. “You just think, ‘This is never going to end,’ and then it does, and you go, ‘Did I go through that? I cannot believe it,’” DePaiva recalled. “And that’s kind of where I am now — I can’t believe the journey, but I’m grateful.”
DePaiva has played Eve Donovan on Days of Our Lives since 2014. She has also appeared as Blair Cramer on One Life to Live and General Hospital. Now that her cancer is behind her, DePaiva has returned to both Days of Our Lives and General Hospital.
“Hope Blair gets through the Drama today in Port Charles!” she tweeted on Monday, September 18, ahead of her latest appearance on General Hospital. “Looking forward to your thoughts!”
DePaiva announced her leukemia diagnosis in an August 2016 blog post, revealing at the time that she’d been hospitalized for six weeks. “I have amazing prayer warriors, family, and friends that have been extremely supportive. Although I’m unable to be ‘camera ready’ now … my goal is [to] get back to stirring up trouble in Salem soon,” she wrote at the time, referring to the fictional town where Days of Our Lives is set.
