Katie Couric penned an essay on her website about her breast cancer experience in September 2022. The journalist said that she had lost track of time and was six months late for her yearly mammogram. Couric explained that because she has dense breasts, she usually does a breast ultrasound as well as a mammogram, and the doctor saw a mass and wanted to do a core needle biopsy to check the tissue. The next day, she found out she had cancer. “I felt sick and the room started to spin,” Couric 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. ‘What does this mean?’ ‘Will I need a mastectomy?’ ‘Will I need chemo?’ ‘What will the next weeks, months, even years look like?'”
A few weeks later, Couric had a lumpectomy to remove the tumor in her breast, which was “2.5 centimeters, roughly the size of an olive.” The pathology showed her cancer was stage 1A, and because the tumor was detected early enough, it was “highly treatable.” Luckily, the likelihood of the cancer returning was “low enough to forgo chemotherapy,” so after surgery, she underwent radiation, which lasted from Sept. 7 until Sept. 27, and began medication, which she’ll take for five years.
During an October 2022 appearance on “Today,” Couric said, “I just feel super lucky that it was diagnosed when it was.”