Lucy Liu's Breast Cancer Scare

August 24 -- (ABCNEWS.com) — Charlie's Angels star Lucy Liu says she went into "shell shock" when a doctor told her 10 years ago that she had a lump in her breast.

The actress, who is phasing out her Ally McBeal role to focus on films, is speaking out for the first time about her experience with what turned out to be a benign growth.

"[The doctor] said it was cancer and it needs to come out," Liu told USA Today. "I went into shell shock. It was pretty traumatizing."

Liu had the mass removed and says she now regrets not having asked for a second opinion.

She's now the spokeswoman for an October Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation fund-raiser targeting young women who may not realize that they are at risk.

"Looking back now, I didn't even know what a mammogram or ultrasound was," said Liu. "I had never even heard those words. I don't know what planet I was from."