Katie Couric Opens Up About Her Diagnosis Ahead Of Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Veteran journalist Katie Couric has had quite a history with cancer and has been a fervent advocate, supporting various campaigns since the late nineties.

Her first husband, Jay Monahan III, died of colorectal cancer in 1998, at 42, while her sister Emily Couric lost her life at 54 to pancreatic cancer in 2001. Unfortunately, Katie also got diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this year, and in preparation for the awareness month, she wanted to share her narrative, encouraging every woman to get checked.

Using her Instagram feed, the former CBS News host posted a picture of herself sitting on a waiting chair wearing a white robe-like attire while her face was partly concealed with a nose mask. She began her caption by explaining that every two minutes, an average woman gets diagnosed with breast cancer in the States, and she sadly became one of them on June 21 of this year.

Katie further wrote, "As we approach #BreastCancerAwarenessMonth, I wanted to share my personal story with you all and encourage you to get screened." She also wished for the women to understand that they may fall into the category of those who need more than a mammogram. In conclusion, the ex-ABC News anchor wrote, "Head to the link in my bio or katiecouric.com to read my essay."

As her fans are aware, her website gives detailed information about cancer, including the dreadful breast cancer, which has been significantly helpful to many women around the world. In one of her September articles on Katie Couric Media, the different types of breast cancer were highlighted, ranging from the most typical forms to the rare ones.

Breast cancer comes in many variations and classes, categorized according to what cells the tumor has extended to, how far it has progressed, and, sometimes, how it acts within the body. It could be "ductal" or "lobular" and invasive, inflammatory, or worse. Ductal implies that the cancer is confined to the milk ducts, while lobular means it is in the breast's lobules or mammary glands. 

As for the different types of breast cancer, the common forms listed in the written piece included Ductal Carcinoma In Situ, Invasive Ductal Carcinoma, Invasive Lobular Carcinoma, HER2-Positive and HER2-Negative, and Triple-Negative.

The first is an early form of cancer, and it is "noninvasive," restricted to the milk ducts. But the second, as the name implies, has an invasive potential to reach other parts of the body. Invasive Lobular Carcinoma is another form of invasive breast cancer that starts from the breast lobules and can spread to other body parts. It could also be harder to spot as it does not always have a lump.

On the other hand, HER2, which stands for human epidermal growth factor receptor-2, is related to breast cancer when it is overproduced, causing HER2-Positive or underproduced; HER2-Negative. Lastly, Triple-Negative breast cancer cells do not overproduce HER2 and do not have estrogen or progesterone receptors.

Other classes of breast cancer in the article included the rare forms, namely, Inflammatory breast cancer, Paget disease of the breast, Angiosarcoma of the breast, Metaplastic breast cancer, and Phyllodes tumors. Their symptoms are pretty easy to detect and could be aggressive, often requiring complicated surgeries and mastectomies.

Last October, Katie opened up about her bulimia struggles which she also detailed in her memoir "Going There." The Blast reported that she battled the condition for more than seven years upon becoming a teenager and had not used a scale in her home for over five years at the time.

The former NBC News host had issues measuring her weight; even when visiting the doctor, she weighed herself backward. In her book, she revealed that "an aspect of perfectionism and high achieving that was very much a part" of her and her family also played a part in her body dissatisfaction.

She further divulged, "Like so many women of our generation, I aspired to be thin and lanky and all the things I'm not." Katie eventually put an end to her bulimic condition after hearing of the loss of Karen Carpenter to heart failure caused by anorexia in 1983.