Former “Bachelorette” Katie Thurston confirmed Friday on Instagram that her breast cancer is Stage 4 and has spread to her liver.
In a candid update to viewers, set 43 days after she received a cancer diagnosis, Thurston shared that she has not started treatment yet due to testing and her decision to “focus on fertility” beforehand.
After undergoing a breast ultrasound, mammogram and biopsy of the breast, Thurston said she also had to have a CT scan, bone density scan and MRI. She transferred her care from a hospital in Los Angeles to New York, where she had a PET scan done, which detected spots on her liver that “were a little suspicious.”
“Unfortunately, I did find out today that my breast cancer has spread to the liver. It is fairly small; however, that does put me at Stage 4,” she said in Friday’s video.
She shared that her treatment will start April 4 and will involve chemotherapy.
“I know Stage 4 can sound very scary, and it can be. However, 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,” she said.
Triple-positive refers to a type of breast cancer involving cancerous cells that grow using three different types of receptors, according to a post on the website for the MD Anderson Cancer Center. It’s a subtype of HER2 positive breast cancer, which “is the most treatable type of breast cancer, and it is the most responsive to treatment,” breast medical oncologist Dr. Jason Mouabbi said in the 2023 blog post.
Thurston’s update comes just days after she married comedian Jeff Arcuri.
She went public with her diagnosis on Feb. 15.
“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,” she said at the time.
Thurston first appeared on TV screens as a contestant on “The Bachelor” in 2021. She then led Season 17 of “The Bachelorette,” which premiered in June 2021.
