Journalist Katie Couric reveals she underwent treatment for breast cancer

Renowned journalist Katie Couric on Wednesday revealed her recent breast cancer diagnosis in a blog post on her website.

She named the piece, Why Not Me. “June 21, 2022, was the first day of summer, my 8th wedding anniversary, and the day I found out I had breast cancer. I felt sick and the room started to spin,” she wrote.

“I was in the middle of an open office, so I walked to a corner and spoke quietly, my mouth unable to keep up with the questions swirling in my head,” Couric added.

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She informed that since her most recent mammogram was in December 2020, her gynaecologist had informed her that she was overdue for one.

Similarly to when she underwent colon cancer screening when working for the morning show Today, Couric, who lost her first husband Jay Monahan to the disease in 1998, said she planned on documenting the test to share with her audience.

She said that she frequently has breast ultrasonography in addition to mammography because dense breast tissue can make it more challenging for mammograms to detect problems.

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A subsequent biopsy revealed that she had cancer after the ultrasound indicated something was amiss.

“The heart-stopping, suspended animation feeling I remember all too well came flooding back: Jay’s colon cancer diagnosis at 41 and the terrifying, gutting nine months that followed,” Couric wrote. “My sister Emily’s pancreatic cancer, which would later kill her at 54, just as her political career was really taking off. My mother-in-law Carol’s ovarian cancer, which she was fighting as she buried her son, a year and nine months before she herself was laid to rest.”

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Her family has had better outcomes with cancer, she claimed. Her mother was “diagnosed with mantle cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which was kept at bay for a decade,” her father had prostate cancer, and her future husband, John, had “a tumor the size of a coconut on his liver,” which was surgically removed a few months before their wedding.

In order to remove a tumour from her breast that was “2.5 centimetres, roughly the size of an olive,” Couric underwent surgery in July. She also endured radiotherapy, which, according to Couric, ended on Tuesday.

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She remarked that she shared her story in the hopes that it will serve as a lesson and help save lives.

“Please get your annual mammogram. I was six months late this time,” Couric added. “I shudder to think what might have happened if I had put it off longer. But just as importantly, please find out if you need additional screening.”