Katie Thurston Double Mastectomy , One Year Cancer Update

eonline.com · Feb 18, 2026 · Collected from GDELT

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Bachelorette's Katie Thurston Shares One Year Update on Cancer JourneyKatie Thurston is feeling optimistic. One year after her stage 4 breast cancer diagnosis, the Bachelorette alum shared an update on her health after receiving “stable” MRI and PET scan results. “While that is a good thing, it is the first time in a year that my tumor isn’t shrinking, that it just is stagnant,” Katie said in a video shared to Instagram Feb. 17. “Which had me kind of spiraling a little bit.” But while she explained that the results initially caused her to worry that “the medicine’s not working anymore,” Katie said her oncologist assured her that due to brief breaks with her medication, the tumor has remained stable, and she does not have to seek out another line of treatment. “When you first start treatment, your body is in like shock,” the 35-year-old said. “Suddenly I’m in menopause, suddenly I’m on really strong medication. So, it is common for the tumor to shrink significantly up front and then to kind of slow down that momentum as treatment continues.”“So overall in the last year my tumor has shrunk by 50 percent,” she added. “That’s great news. The PET scan showed no new spread.” While she is still approved for her current treatment plan, Katie—who tied the knot with husband Jeff Arcuri in 2025 amid her health battle—shared that she has also decided to undergo surgery.Noam Galai/Getty Images for The Pink Agenda“My latest update actually is that this Friday I’m going to be meeting with my surgeon to pursue a double mastectomy,” she shared. “My surgeon had approved it for my situation and so I’m going to see her in person this Friday and kind of go over things in detail to figure out what that looks like.” She added, “’Cause that’s a very big next step in my cancer treatment journey.” But while Katie’s own health journey is trending positively, her family is navigating another scary development: In January, Katie shared her mom had also been diagnosed with breast cancer. “My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer a few weeks ago,” Katie wrote in a post on Instagram Jan. 19 alongside a throwback photo of the mother-daughter duo. “But it wasn’t her doctors who discovered it.”In fact, while her mom had received a normal mammogram result, Katie encouraged her to pursue a breast ultrasound just in case. “During her breast ultrasound, they found suspicious masses,” she explained. "They scheduled a breast MRI and performed biopsies. Within two weeks of her ‘normal’ mammogram and her advocating for herself, she was diagnosed with cancer.” Katie shared that she flew to Seattle to join her mother at her first appointment and was optimistic about her journey as she said, “Our own advocacy allowed us to catch this early.”To look back on what Katie has shared about her cancer journey, keep reading...Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty ImagesKatie Thurston on What Led to Getting Checked for Breast CancerKatie Thurston grew concerned when she discovered a small lump in her breast during the summer of 2024."I discovered it myself," The Bachelorette alum wrote on her Instagram Stories in February 2025. "Thought maybe it was my period. Maybe it was muscle soreness from working out."Because Katie had a benign cyst removed from that same breast when she was 20, she assumed this new lump was something similar. But after it didn't go away, she decided to get it checked out."Went to the doc thinking it was going to be nothing," she continued. "I was wrong."Instagram / Katie ThurstonKatie Thurston on How She Learned of Her Breast Cancer DiagnosisKatie's doctor referred her to a specialist to get a breast ultrasound. Then, she had a mammogram followed by a biopsy."Only then can they confirm if it’s breast cancer," she said in a March 18, 2025 Instagram video. And she'll never forget the moment she first got the news.It was "the worst feeling I’ve ever felt," the reality star, whose family doesn't have a history of breast cancer, shared on Good Morning America March 19, 2025. "You’re so devastated. It’s so shocking. As a 34-year-old woman, you're not prepared."Katie informed her fans of her stage 3 diagnosis on February 15, 2025."I experienced a range of emotions over the past two weeks," she wrote on Instagram. "Despair. Anger. Sadness. Denial. And then strength. Purposeful. Ready. I cried a lot."And she expressed her intent to document her journey in the hope of helping others."One thing I did early on was search other stories like mine," she continued. "Other young women with breast cancer. Invasive ductal carcinoma. Mastectomy. Pregnancy after breast cancer. All of their stories helped. So I intend to be the same for others. This is day one of sharing and is going to be a long one. This first step of acceptance of my reality was the hardest. But I am ready to fight this."Instagram / Katie ThurstonKatie Thurston on Her Fertility Journey, Embryo FreezingNews of Katie's diagnosis came five months after she got engaged to Jeff Arcuri, a comedian she met through Instagram in the spring of 2024."We thought we’d be planning a wedding," the TV personality continued on GMA. "We thought we’d be trying for a baby. Instead, we know that this year is really dedicated to treatment and getting better."So, Katie and Jeff froze embryos in case her cancer treatments affected her fertility. "We retrieved 17 eggs and attempted to fertilize them," she wrote on her Instagram Stories March 31, 2025. "Of the 17, only 6 were successfully fertilized. But then they have to make it to the blastocyst stage. Only three made it. And after genetic testing, we have 2 embryos we were able to freeze, one Grade B and one Grade C. This is the reality of IVF."Katie also spoke about the possibility of using a surrogate down the line."Jeff and I discussed the importance of my health and that when the time comes, surrogacy will likely be the best option for us," she wrote on her Instagram Stories. "A friendly reminder to stop judging celebrities who pursue surrogacy because you don't know what they have going on in their personal lives."However, Katie told GMA she and Jeff are "also OK being a childless couple."Instagram / Katie ThurstonKatie Thurston On Her, Jeff Arcuri's Decision to Marry Amid Her Cancer BattleKatie and Jeff also moved forward with their plans to wed on March 22, 2025 in New York, the bride having made the cross-country move after months of dating long-distance."It was so so sweet," she told Us Weekly about their decision to have a ceremony, sharing it took place in the backyard of their apartment with their parents, officiant and newly adopted dog Charlie in attendance. "Obviously, we were wanting to plan a wedding and there’s a lot of emotions that come in with chemo and the impact and the health. We don’t know what the next year looks like. And one night he said, 'I want to show you that I still love you and that I’m here to stay.' And he said, 'I'll get married to you tomorrow.'"And while they plan to have a big wedding in the future, she added that Jeff's gesture was him "proving that he’s here to stay" in sickness and in health. For the groom, there was also a practical element to saying "I do." "I also just want to be able to be in the hospital with her and just be like, 'My wife’s in there,'" he told the outlet. "There’s more power to that. I don’t want to be not with you for any of this."Instagram / Katie ThurstonKatie Thurston on Her Cancer MetastasizingLess than a week after Jeff and Katie wed, she shared that a PET scan detected "some spots" on her liver and that her cancer is now stage 4."I know stage 4 can sound very scary and it can be," she said in an Instagram video March 28, 2025. "But given that I am triple-positive and the spots on my liver are fairly small and detected early, I feel very optimistic on my outcome."Instagram / Katie ThurstonKatie Thurston on Her Breast Cancer Treatment PlanAfter receiving her stage 4 diagnosis, Katie gave an update on her treatment plan."The cancer that is within the liver is from the breast cancer," she shared. "So in basic terms, my breast cancer is the root and will be the focus. Six rounds of chemotherapy to start."But right before Katie was scheduled to begin this treatment, she received another update."Today I was supposed to start chemo," she wrote on Instagram April 4, 2025. "I had my cold cap, my cold socks, snacks, blankets, medications, entertainment ready. My aunt Lindsey flew in to be with me this weekend for recovery. However, yesterday I got the call that my pathology results on my liver, breast, and lymph nodes all came back as HER2 Negative even though my original samples as Kaiser were HER2+. I was minutes away from taking my steroid for chemo prep. Instead I am headed to my doctor to discuss how this happened, what testing is needed, and what this means for my new treatment plan."As a result, Katie noted it "sounds like chemo is off the table now." "I should be excited about that," she added. "But in two months, I’ve continued to get an updated diagnosis three times. I think thoroughness and getting a second medical opinion has been instrumental in my early cancer stage journey."Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty ImagesKatie Thurston On Her Advice, Message for OthersAs Katie continues her fight against cancer, she's taking things day by day."Sometimes I think 'wtf is my life?’" she wrote on her Boobie Broadcast channel March 31, 2025. "But whether I like it or not, this is my life and I have to make the best of it. They say live like you’re dying, but now that I am, it’s easier said than done. And don’t get me wrong, every day, we are all closer to death. Not in a morbid way but in the undeniable circle of life. So cancer or not, I am blessed with today. So while I have sad moments or days, I want to do my best to cherish my time, cancer or not."And she's sending her followers an important reminder. "Don’t wait. Be proactive. Get checked out," Katie said on Good Morning America. "You could be doing yo