The Bachelorette alum Katie Thurston has revealed she is taking a break from treatment for her stage 4 breast cancer as she seeks some relief and a sense of normalcy amid her health battle.
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Katie, 35, took to her Boobie Broadcast channel on Thursday, June 11 to share a new update with fans on her stage 4 breast cancer, which metastasized to her liver, People reported.
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Katie explained that her liver enzyme levels are still high, even though recent scans showed there is no longer evidence of cancer in her liver.
Doctors therefore allegedly want to conduct more testing, which would unfortunately mean more needle pokes for Katie.
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"In short, we don't know why [my enzyme levels are up]. So they want to do a liver biopsy as well as incorporate steroids to help with whatever inflammation is going on," Katie shared.
"I feel comfortable waiting another month. Not to mention, I already have a scheduled PET scan in late June. I am doing what is best for me and sometimes that is just allowing yourself a little break from it all."
Katie, who has been open about her fear of needles for quite some time, admitted she doesn't want to go through any of that this summer.
Katie therefore declined the procedures, and she posted a screenshot of the email had she sent to her doctor explaining why.
"Thank you for the update," she wrote to her doctors, according to the screenshot posted on her channel.
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"I am confidently going to decline both a liver biopsy and a new medication for another four weeks," she continued.
"Tomorrow I am switching to zoladex. And I'd like to see how that impacts my labs (if at all) before trying to incorporate more variables."
Katie went on to confirm that she needs to temporarily step away from her treatment "for mental health reasons."
"I really need to take a break from all the pokes and surgeries and just try to enjoy a somewhat normal summer," she told her doctors in conclusion.
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Last week, Katie shared with her followers that her fear of needles has been a bit of a roller coaster through her treatment.
"I was doing really good with them lately but the last 2 blood draws and recent IV for my MRI ALL HAD ME IN TEARS," Katie confessed on June 10. "My left arm is tired of being poked."
The Bachelor alum revealed that she used to take lorazepam, an anxiety treatment, prior to her blood draws and appointments requiring needles.
"But eventually I started getting more brave and stopped," she said. "May have to add that back into the routine."
Katie first announced she'd been diagnosed with breast cancer in February 2025, and then one month later, she learned the cancer had spread to her liver, elevating her diagnosis to stage 4 cancer.
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Katie therefore begun a treatment plan that resulted in her tumors shrinking. However, she had to pause her cancer treatments in April to hopefully prevent liver damage and also prepare for a double mastectomy.
Katie then revealed in May that her liver was "not okay," and she added at the time, "[I] will need MRI and likely another biopsy."
She questioned at the time, "The cancer had spread to my liver once. Is it back? Is it the Lupron injection? Because those spikes sure coincide with my injections?"
Katie acknowledged that while her doctors wanted to do more testing at the time, she planned to wait until she returned home from a cruise to Alaska with her husband Jeff Arcuri.
"Scanxiety is not something I need," she quipped at the time.
On May 31, Katie shared via Instagram Stories that she had a liver MRI scheduled for June 7 and "Signatera results pending PET scan June 25th."
While Katie said on June 8 that she's excited to hear there's no cancer in her liver anymore, she said she has elevated enzyme levels that doctors will have to continue to monitor.
"I refuse to call it a terminal illness," she told People earlier this year.
"No one is promised tomorrow. Why waste the days I've been given stressing about death?"
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Katie, who competed on Matt James' The Bachelor season before starring on The Bachelorette's seventeenth season, saw Jeff for the first time in March 2024 on Instagram and sent her friend a video of his standup, calling him her "future husband."
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Katie hard launched her relationship with Jeff in June 2024. She announced at the time, "Safe to say he's making it to hometowns next week," which was a nod to her prior The Bachelorette stint in 2021.
Katie and Jeff got engaged in August 2024, and then Katie moved from California to New York for Jeff and her cancer treatments.
Katie subsequently sought IVF in early 2025 so that she and Jeff can hopefully welcome children one day.
"We were able to retrieve 17 eggs and of those 17, six became embryos," she previously shared.
Katie and Jeff tied the knot in an intimate backyard wedding in March 2025, and Katie said they'll have a bigger wedding after she beats cancer.
"He is proving that he's here to stay. He shows up every day and he does it in ways that just continue to surprise," Katie gushed to Us Weekly last year.
Prior to falling in love with Jeff, Katie had a short-lived engagement to her The Bachelorette 17 winner Blake Moynes.
Katie's The Bachelorette season ended on ABC in August 2021, and then she and Blake -- a Canadian wildlife specialist -- announced their breakup only a couple of months later in October 2021.
Katie then went public with her romance with John Hersey, whom she had eliminated during Week 2 of her The Bachelorette journey, in November 2021. She was accused of moving on from Blake quickly with "a rebound" and emotionally cheating on her ex-fiance.
Katie and John split after less than one year together in June 2022, and Katie expressed on numerous occasions how John dumped her after she had allegedly given the relationship everything she had.
After ending her relationship with John, Katie made a cameo on Bachelor in Paradise's ninth season in 2023 and found closure with Blake, who remained her friend post-show.
Katie then she decided to pursue a unique opportunity and look for love on FBoy Island.
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Katie had a brief public relationship with FBoy Island's Vince Xu, but Katie announced their breakup in December 2023.
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