Actress Christina Applegate confessed Tuesday in an interview on Good Morning America that she is cancer free after a double mastectomy.

"I'm clear. Absolutely 100 per cent clear and clean," said the 36- year-old star of the comedy Samantha Who? "It did not spread - they got everything out, so I'm definitely not going to die from breast cancer."

Applegate said she opted to have both her breasts removed three weeks ago in an operation known as a prophylactic double mastectomy, and avoid chemotherapy even though cancerous lumps were only found in one breast.

"My decision, after looking at all the treatment plans that were possibilities for me, the only one that seemed the most logical and the one that was going to work for me was to have a bilateral mastectomy," Applegate said.

"I didn't want to go back to the doctors every four months for testing and squishing and everything. I just wanted to kind of get rid of this whole thing. This was the choice that I made and it was a tough one."

Applegate said the emotional toll had been heavy, but she was keeping her sense of humour.

"Sometimes, you know, I cry. And sometimes I scream. And I get really angry. And I get really upset, you know, wallowing in self- pity sometimes. And I think that it's all part of the healing," she said.

On the bright side, she was having breast reconstruction surgery and has launched a charity foundation to help other women get the advanced MRI screenings that detected her disease, she revealed.

"I'm going to have the best boobs in the nursing home," she said. "I'm going to have cute boobs till I'm 90."