Katie Couric announces her breast cancer diagnosis

Katie Couric was diagnosed with breast cancer over the summer and underwent surgery and radiation therapy, which ended this week.

As the former host of “CBS Evening News” and “Today” explained in an essay posted on Katie Couric Media on Wednesday, where she first shared her diagnosis, Couric learned of the cancer after a mammogram in June. She missed a routine screening that was supposed to take place about eight months into the pandemic.

“This time I was six months late. I shudder to think what could have happened if I had put it off longer,” she wrote, encouraging people to attend their own screenings and schedule follow-up tests if warranted.

In a personal essay and on her essay and beyond Instagram65-year-old Couric shared information about the prevalence of breast cancer.

“Every two minutes, a woman in the United States is diagnosed with breast cancer. On June 21, I became one of them,” she wrote in a social media post posted Wednesday morning. “As we approach #BreastCancerAwarenessMonth, I wanted to share my personal story with all of you and encourage you to get screened and realize that you may be one of those women who need more than just a mammogram.”

Members of Couric’s family have battled various forms of cancer in the past, including several close relatives. In 1998, journalist Jay Monaghan’s husband died of stage 4 colon cancer at the age of 42. Her sister Emily died of pancreatic cancer when she was 54, and her mother and father were diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and prostate cancer, respectively.

Despite her family’s history of the disease, Couric said she was initially surprised by her own diagnosis, given that breast cancer “was new.” She later discovered that 85% of people diagnosed with the condition in the US have no family history.

“People who are going through cancer, whether they are patients or caregivers, really need the support of other patients who have been there,” said Couric during an appearance on “CBS Mornings” in 2019.

“Unless you’ve been through it, you really don’t understand what it’s like,” she continued. “And I remember Jay telling me, ‘Having cancer is the loneliest thing in the world.’ It made me so sad because I couldn’t help him, he felt so alone.”

Couric’s last round of radiation took place on Tuesday.

“My left breast looks like I got a topless tan, but other than that I felt good,” she said.