Katic Couric Brings Courage and Commitment to Fight Against Breast Cancer

In September 2022, Katie Couric announced that she had breast cancer. For the accomplished 65-year-old newscaster, the diagnosis was an emotionally triggering reminder that she had lost her first husband, Jay Monahan, to colon cancer in 1998. Her mother-in-law died soon after of ovarian cancer, and her sister from pancreatic cancer in 2001. 

After being diagnosed in the summer of 2022, Couric told her fans, she underwent surgery and began a course of radiation treatment. By early October, she had finished her radiation visits, and was feeling well. She also felt very lucky that, even though her diagnosis came late, she was able to begin what looks like effective treatment. 

When she went to her doctor’s office in May for an overdue mammogram, she was shocked when her doctor recommended a biopsy that same day. The following day she learned that the growth was cancerous, but treatable. After so much family tragedy surrounding the disease, she knew her announcement would be traumatic for her daughters. So she took a few days to process her own reactions to her diagnosis and worked to keep their spirits up, as well as her own.  

No family history 

“Why not me?” was a refrain that became habitual for Couric over the years, given her extended family’s history with cancer. Her mother was able to fight off a form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma for a decade before dying at age 91 in 2014. Her current husband, financier John Molner, had a tumor removed from his liver months before their wedding.  

But none of the women in her family had ever been diagnosed with breast cancer. Couric found out that this is common: About 85 percent of the quarter-million women diagnosed with the disease in the United States have no family history of it.  

Couric’s lumpectomy, which she underwent in July, removed a tumor the size of an olive. After her radiation series, she’ll now have five years of taking medication to lower her risk of developing breast cancer again. The medication, an aromatase inhibitor, is one of a class recommended for women past menopause at higher risk of breast cancer. Aromatase inhibitors reduce estrogen levels by blocking the enzyme aromatase from converting other hormones into estrogen. 

Getting the facts out there 

Even so soon after her own diagnosis and treatment, Couric has already become a powerful advocate for other women, urging them to get regular mammograms in order to stand the best chance of stopping breast cancer in its tracks. As Couric found out, the best way to ensure that mammograms are effective in the fight against cancer is just to go and get them regularly. 

Since 1990, according to the American College of Radiology, mammography technology has helped reduce the incidence of death from breast cancer in the U.S. by 40 percent, and in fact is the only medical test known to lower the number of deaths from the disease.  

Regular mammograms can spot cancers early, often before the patient herself can feel any abnormality. Early detection means that there’s a greater chance that any tumors found will be treatable, and decreases the likelihood of needing more extreme treatment. It ups women’s odds of survival. 

Using personal loss to help others 

Katie Couric is well-known for transforming her personal tragedy into activism following the untimely death of her first husband. She helped normalize discussions of the previously sensitive topic of colorectal cancer screenings, even filming herself undergoing such an exam. 

Through marketing campaigns and public education, she continues to honor Jay Monahan’s memory by stressing the importance of early screening and detection. She has even brought other celebrities into the fold.  

In 2018, when late night host Jimmy Kimmel turned 50, Couric asked if she could accompany him to his first colonoscopy. The two of them filmed the procedure from Kimmel’s drinking of the fluid needed to flush out his colon all the way through to the medical read-outs at the conclusion of the procedure. Along the way, there was plenty of humor from Kimmel, as he and Couric laid down the facts for his audience. 

Colon cancer, Couric pointed out, is one of the leading causes of cancer death for both men and women.  

Most physicians recommend that individuals at normal risk schedule their first colonoscopy by about age 45. If you’re at normal risk, your doctor might recommend that you undergo the procedure once every 10 years or so thereafter. For those with a family history, it should be done more often.  

Protect yourself with a mammogram every year 

It’s likely we’ll hear more from Katie Couric on the subject of both colon cancer and breast cancer from now on, and her voice will be much appreciated. Breast cancer accounts for about one out of every three cancers diagnosed in women in the U.S. every year, and is the most common form of female cancer after skin cancer. The median age at which women receive a diagnosis of breast cancer is 62, which means it can affect many who are much younger.  

If you’re a woman over 40 and you haven’t scheduled your first mammogram, it’s time to give your doctor a call.