Bachelorette Star Katie Thurston Was Diagnosed With Breast Cancer: Here’s What We Know

On March 28, Thurston confirmed her cancer had progressed to stage 4 after her doctors discovered signs the disease had spread to her liver. “After days of waiting, 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 four,” Thurston said in a new Instagram video.

When was Thurston diagnosed?

On March 27, Thurston said it’s been 43 days since her initial diagnosis, suggesting doctors confirmed the news on February 8.

She first decided to share the news two weeks after processing the diagnosis. “I experienced a range of emotions over the past two weeks,” she said in February. “Despair. Anger. Sadness. Denial. And then strength. Purposeful. Ready. I cried a lot. I tried to even make a video instead of this post and couldn’t.”

When will Thurston start treatment?

In her newest post, Thurston explained that she “decided to focus on fertility before doing treatment” and will discuss her IVF journey at a later date. For now, she says she has moved her medical care from Los Angeles to New York and will begin treatment next week.

“I know stage four can sound very scary, and it can be,” Thurston said in her March video. “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. I’m very confident in the team at Columbia and I just wanted to share that update.”

Over on her Instagram story, she told fans that she will undergo six rounds of chemo and that her “treatment is spaced out as six treatments to start, three weeks apart.” She says the treatment plan is “essentially the same” for her liver as her breast cancer. “The cancer that is within the liver is from the breast cancer spreading vs. a new type of cancer,” she wrote. “So in basic terms, my breast cancer is the root and will be the focus.”

Thurston married Jeff Acuri prior to starting treatment.

Thurston and Arcuri got married at home in a backyard ceremony on March 22. In an exclusive interview with Us Weekly, the pair decided to push up their wedding ahead of Thurston’s treatment.