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Katie Thurston gave a health update amid her ongoing stage IV breast cancer battle.
“I wanted to give an update on my latest chapter as someone experiencing [and] navigating stage IV breast cancer. The thing that people don’t realize with stage IV is I will be on medication for the rest of life,” the former Bachelorette, 34, said in a Friday, September 19, Instagram video. “It’s kind of like a maintenance plan, which is great but also can be scary.”
Thurston added that as she continues to treat her cancer, there is the possibility that her “medication stops working.” If that happens, she and her doctor review her options for the next best solution.
Every month, Thurston gets her labs checked. A recent batch was “a little concerning,” to her and the medical staff. Her doctor ended up “decreasing” the amount of pills she takes to “two pills” a day, rather than her typical three. Thurston shared that the switch has helped her.
“That has worked for my liver enzymes, meaning I don’t need to pause my treatment, I can continue my treatment,” she explained. “The bigger test on if this is working still, is next month i will get rescanned to see how much the tumor has shrunk.”
Thurston shared that the cancer that had spread to her liver has “disappeared on its own” and is no longer showing up on her scans.
As Thurston prepares for the next phase of her treatment, she’s remaining optimistic that she’ll have “no evidence of disease” in her scan schedule for “next month.” If the scan comes back with positive news, she’ll be able to undergo a double mastectomy
“In November, I have scheduled my double mastectomy,” she said, noting that it is “like a whole other chapter” that she does not “know enough yet”
“Things are working so far and we’re adjusting,” she said.
Earlier this year, Thurston revealed she was diagnosed with breast cancer after finding a “small lump” that “never went away.”
“My first lump [which was a benign cyst] felt like a pea or marble [and] hard, unnatural, but didn’t cause me discomfort. The second felt larger,” she recalled in February 2025. “The pain initially came and went, but maybe after 3-4 months of it not going away or improving, I got nervous and saw my doctor.”
One month later, Thurston’s doctors discovered that the cancer had spread to her liver, making her diagnosis stage IV.
