Applegate explained that doctors had found cancerous cell in her breasts after the second of two MRIs.

"I'm clear," Applegate, 36, said. "Absolutely 100 percent clear and clean.  They got everything out."

Applegate, an Emmy nominee for her turn as a former bitch with amnesia on Samantha Who?, says that she was angered by her diagnosis at first, then sprang into action.

"I was so mad, I was just shaking," she says. "And then also immediately, I had to go into take-care-of-business-mode. I asked them, 'What do I do now? What is it that I do?'"

Having seen her mother twice stricken with breast cancer, Applegate went all out in her battle against the disease. Despite the malignant cells being detected in only one breast, the actress chose to undergo a proactive double mastectomy.

She may not be happy about that procedure, but Applegate reassures herself: "I'm definitely not going to die from breast cancer."