US tennis star Nicole Gibbs has had to pull out of the French Open after a routine dentist appointment led to a cancer diagnosis.
Gibbs, 26, was getting her teeth checked last month when her dentist asked her about a growth on the roof of her mouth, which has been there for years, she told TODAY.
Gibbs's dentist encouraged her to get a biopsy, and results showed that she had a rare form of mouth cancer.
The 26-year-old is now putting her career on hold, preparing to undergo surgery on Friday to remove the tumor, and she says she wants her story to encourage others to get regular dental care and to advocate for themselves if they believe something is wrong.
US women's tennis star Nicole Gibbs, 26, went to the dentist one month ago and he found a growth on the roof of her mouth. Pictured: Gibbs during the qualifying round of the 2018 Miami Open, March 2018
She said the growth had been there for years but he encouraged her to get it biopsied. Pictured: Gibbs during an interview on the TODAY show
'I was just really fortunate that my dentist, Dr Kevin Lee, was able to identify it correctly as something that should not be there, and he encouraged me to get a biopsy and it came back as positive for a form of cancer,' she told TODAY.
'It was definitely earth-shattering for the first few days where we were still trying to figure out what's what exactly.'
Salivary gland cancer is a rare form of cancer in which malignant cells form in the tissues of the salivary glands, which make saliva and release it into the mouth.
Gibbs specifically has a type of tumor known as a mucoepidermoid carcinoma, the most common type of salivary gland cancer.
These tumors usually occur in the minor salivary glands that are too small to see
