Journalist Katie Couric announced on Wednesday that she was diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this year and underwent successful surgery to remove a 2.5-centimeter tumor.
“Every two minutes, a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer in the United States. On June 21st, I became one of them,” Couric tweeted.
Couric, who famously aired her colonoscopy when she was the co-host of NBC’s “Today” in 2000, planned to share a June mammogram with her fans as a way to remind them to get checked out. Couric described what turned into a frightening situation in an entry she wrote on her website titled, “Why NOT Me?”
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A doctor asked her to stop filming following the exam, informing Couric she’d spotted something and a biopsy was needed.
“Ugh. I wasn’t super stoked about having a needle penetrate my breast to extract several tissue samples, but I was grateful she was being so thorough. I left with gauze in my bra and the promise she would be in touch,” Couric wrote.
The following day, Couric was informed the biopsy revealed cancer.
“You’re going to be fine but we need to make a plan,” the doctor told her.
“I felt sick and the room started to spin. 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 wrote. “What does this mean? Will I need a mastectomy? Will I need chemo? What will the next weeks, months, even years look like?”
Couric then explained that the “heart-stopping, suspended animation feeling” was reminiscent of other times she learned loved ones had cancer.
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“My mood quickly shifted from disbelief to resignation,” she wrote. “Given my family’s history of cancer, why would I be spared? My reaction went from ‘Why me?’ to ‘Why not me?’”
Couric decided to have a “breast conservation” surgery followed by radiation and medication.
“Throughout the process, I kept thinking about two things: How lucky I was to have access to such incredible care, since so many people don’t. And how lucky I was to be the beneficiary of such amazing technology. It made me feel grateful and guilty — and angry that there’s a de facto caste system when it comes to healthcare in America,” Couric wrote.
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The tumor was successfully removed, and her margins were clean after the operation; a few weeks later the pathology report indicated her lymph nodes were clean, too.
“I’d later learn my Oncotype — which measures the likelihood of your cancer returning — was 19, considered low enough to forgo chemotherapy,” she wrote.
Her radiation began on Sept. 7 and she has felt good since.
“Why am I telling you all this? Well, since I’m the ‘Screen Queen’ of colon cancer, it seemed odd to not use this as another teachable moment that could save someone’s life,” Couric wrote. “Please get your annual mammogram. I was six months late this time. 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.”
