Nicole Eggert, 52, attends After Baywatch premiere in LA amid breast cancer battle after shock diagnosis

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Nicole Eggert looked effortlessly chic in a tailored black blazer and dark-wash jeans while attending the Los Angeles premiere of After Baywatch: Moment on Monday.

As she walked the red carpet at at The Bungalow in Santa Monica, the actress, who is best known for playing Summer Quinn on the hit lifeguard series, exuded elegance in her timeless look.

The 52-year-old star accessorized her ensemble with a pair of glamorous statement earrings and a delicate gold necklace.

She is currently battling stage 2 cribriform carcinoma breast cancer.

At the event, she gave an update on her health and opened up about the 'hardest' part of her treatment.

Nicole Eggert looked effortlessly chic in a tailored black blazer and dark-wash jeans while attending the Los Angeles premiere of After Baywatch: Moment on Monday

'I am good,' Eggert told People. 'I am in sort of a gray area and I finished my treatment, waiting for more imaging and hopefully maybe surgery.'

She continued: 'And there's a lot of waiting in this and it's sort of something I didn't really realize and nobody really talks about.'

'But the gray area is the hardest because you don't know what's happening and you're just, when I'm doing treatment, I felt like I was doing something productive,' the performer added. 'So it felt positive and I was like, okay, I'm doing something positive. And now that it's just like nothing, it's like, well wait a minute. We got to get this out. So it's, it's just frustrating.'

Amid her cancer battle, the mother-of-two noted that she keeps herself busy by working with 'with [a] Shaman' and doing 'a lot of guided imagery.'

'I've taken some of Jeremy's [Jackson] classes. He teaches like the breath workshops,' she explained.

In order to stay positive, she tries do do 'whatever' she can to 'distract' herself.

As for how her daughters Dilyn, 25, and Keegan, 13, are handling her diagnosis, the actress said they have taken it 'really well.'

'I mean, they kept me on my toes,' she said. 'My 13-year-old didn't give me any special treatment. It was still like, “Mom, give me that, let's go here, let's do that“'

The actress became a fan favorite after playing Roberta 'Summer' Quinn across 44 episodes of Baywatch at the height of its popularity in the early '90s; pictured in 1992

Eggert went on to credit her girls for keeping her 'going' and life 'lively.'

She noted through her treatments, they've 'treated it like nothing's changing' and the 'days the way they' were before her diagnosis.

Earlier this month, she told People that working as a producer on After Baywatch gave her 'purpose.'

'Having a young daughter and having this project has been a great motivation for me to not just sit and think about my health and my wellbeing. It's giving me purpose,' she said. 'It's keeping me driven every day. I think the timing of life is always for a reason. It's been a great distraction, and my daughters kept me on my toes.'

As she walked the red carpet at at The Bungalow in Santa Monica, the actress, who is best known for playing Summer Quinn on the hit lifeguard series, exuded elegance in her timeless look

The 52-year-old star accessorized her ensemble with a pair of glamorous statement earrings and a delicate gold necklace

The rose to fame playing Roberta 'Summer' Quinn across 44 episodes of Baywatch at the height of its popularity in the early '90s.

The actress made the difficult decision to shave her hair off in March and captured the moment she went about it with the assistance of her daughter.

Eggert, who first disclosed she had been diagnosed with breast cancer in December, told Inside Edition that she had just learned doctors had found more disease as she undergoes treatment.

She said she 'kicks herself' over not regularly checking her breasts and said tissue from the breast implants she got aged 19 made it harder to detect any anomalies in her chest.

The star admitted that after gaining around 25 pounds and feeling pain in her left breast beginning in October, she underwent a mammogram and three biopsies - which resulted in a diagnosis of stage 2 cribriform carcinoma breast cancer.

At the event, she gave an update on her health and opened up about the 'hardest' part of her treatment; seen last month

She said: 'When I felt it, my heart dropped and I was like oh my god. Nobody could take me, so I walked into every breast care center. It’s horrifying because every day and every minute that passes, you know it’s growing.

Only a month later, a mammogram finally confirmed her fears – Eggert had stage 2 breast cancer.

'My heart dropped, I lost all hearing, everything sank. It’s named invasive cribriform carcinoma. It’s very rare,' she explained.

'The self-exams, I’m telling you, I kick myself. That’s the one thing I should have been doing.'

The actress revealed tissue from her breast implants made self-exams difficult, adding: 'If I didn’t have them and I had my smaller, natural breasts, I am sure I would have felt it much sooner.'

Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world and affects more than two MILLION women a year

Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world. Each year in the UK there are more than 55,000 new cases, and the disease claims the lives of 11,500 women. In the US, it strikes 266,000 each year and kills 40,000. But what causes it and how can it be treated?

What is breast cancer?

It comes from a cancerous cell which develops in the lining of a duct or lobule in one of the breasts.

When the breast cancer has spread into surrounding tissue it is called 'invasive'. Some people are diagnosed with 'carcinoma in situ', where no cancer cells have grown beyond the duct or lobule.

Most cases develop in those over the age of 50 but younger women are sometimes affected. Breast cancer can develop in men, though this is rare.

Staging indicates how big the cancer is and whether it has spread. Stage 1 is the earliest stage and stage 4 means the cancer has spread to another part of the body.

The cancerous cells are graded from low, which means a slow growth, to high, which is fast-growing. High-grade cancers are more likely to come back after they have first been treated.

What causes breast cancer?

A cancerous tumour starts from one abnormal cell. The exact reason why a cell becomes cancerous is unclear. It is thought that something damages or alters certain genes in the cell. This makes the cell abnormal and multiply 'out of control'.

Although breast cancer can develop for no apparent reason, there are some risk factors that can increase the chance, such as genetics.

What are the symptoms of breast cancer?

The usual first symptom is a painless lump in the breast, although most are not cancerous and are fluid filled cysts, which are benign.

The first place that breast cancer usually spreads to is the lymph nodes in the armpit. If this occurs you will develop a swelling or lump in an armpit.

How is breast cancer diagnosed?

Initial assessment: A doctor examines the breasts and armpits. They may do tests such as a mammography, a special x-ray of the breast tissue which can indicate the possibility of tumours.
Biopsy: A biopsy is when a small sample of tissue is removed from a part of the body. The sample is then examined under a microscope to look for abnormal cells. The sample can confirm or rule out cancer.

If you are confirmed to have breast cancer, further tests may be needed to assess if it has spread. For example, blood tests, an ultrasound scan of the liver or a chest X-ray.

How is breast cancer treated?

Treatment options which may be considered include surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and hormone treatment. Often a combination of two or more of these treatments are used.

Surgery: Breast-conserving surgery or the removal of the affected breast depending on the size of the tumour.
Radiotherapy: A treatment which uses high energy beams of radiation focused on cancerous tissue. This kills cancer cells, or stops them from multiplying. It is mainly used in addition to surgery.
Chemotherapy: A treatment of cancer by using anti-cancer drugs which kill cancer cells, or stop them from multiplying.
Hormone treatments: Some types of breast cancer are affected by the 'female' hormone oestrogen, which can stimulate the cancer cells to divide and multiply. Treatments which reduce the level of these hormones, or prevent them from working, are commonly used in people with breast cancer.

How successful is treatment?

The outlook is best in those who are diagnosed when the cancer is still small, and has not spread. Surgical removal of a tumour in an early stage may then give a good chance of cure.

The routine mammography offered to women between the ages of 50 and 71 means more breast cancers are being diagnosed and treated at an early stage.

For more information visit breastcancernow.org or call its free helpline on 0808 800 6000

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