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Katie Couric appears at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party on March 27 in Beverly Hills, Calif. Couric said Wednesday that she'd been diagnosed with breast cancer, and underwent surgery and radiation treatment this summer to treat the tumor. |
NEW YORK — Katie Couric revealed on Wednesday that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and that the tumor had been removed this summer through surgery and radiation therapy.
Couric, who famously had a colonoscopy on the Today program in 2000, revealed her diagnosis in an essay on her website and expressed the hope that it might inspire other women to be checked as well.
The 65-year-old Couric said that she received her final radiation treatment on Tuesday after being diagnosed on the first day of summer.
She added, "Other than my left breast feeling like I've been sunbathing topless, I've been good."
In 1998, at the age of 41, Couric's first husband, Jay Monahan, passed away from colon cancer, and in 2001, at the age of 54, her sister Emily passed away from pancreatic cancer. Considering her ancestry, Couric questioned "Why should I be left alone? My first thought changed from "why me?" to "why not me?""
The former presenter of Today and the CBS Evening News claimed that she had intended to record her mammogram and breast biopsy and share it with viewers, but that when her doctor informed her that a biopsy was required, she begged her to switch off the cameras.
Couric received a call the next day informing her that she had breast cancer and required a strategy.
She claimed, "I felt nauseous, and the room spun."
She had a lumpectomy on July 14 and started receiving radiotherapy on September 7.
She questioned, "Why am I telling you all this?" It seems strange not to utilize this as another instructional opportunity that could save someone's life, considering that I'm the "screen queen" of colon cancer.
She advised getting a yearly mammogram. "This time, I was six months late. What may have occurred if I had put it off longer makes me cringe.
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