Former Bachelorette Katie Thurston, who is currently battling cancer, is inspiring Andi Dorfman to look after her health.
“I got my first mammogram because of you,” Dorfman, 38, said in a Sunday, March 15, YouTube behind-the-scenes of their Bachelorette reunion, while Thurston, 35, put her hands over her mouth and replied, “Stop.”
Dorfman continued, “I did. I texted you, I told you that. I did.”
Former Golden Bachelorette Joan Vassos then noted that she posted about her mammogram on social media.
“I said, ‘I have a friend that’s going through this right now.’ And the stuff that you do on social media, I know it’s hard to share all of this stuff because [you’re] probably rethinking it every time,” Vassos said. “But you sharing it makes a difference.”
Thurston became emotional as she reflected on using her platform to encourage women to look after their bodies and health. She noted that the “medicine is working” and the “tumor is shrinking.”
“I have this platform as you all know to share with other women, to do your part, get your boobs checked,” Thurston said. “I’m just very fortunate that my medication is working and that I can be here and see all you guys in real life.”
After Thurston was diagnosed with breast cancer in February 2025, she has continued to be candid about her battle.
“I had a small lump in my breast around the 10 o’clock [sic] spot,” she wrote via her Instagram Story at the time. “I discovered it myself. Thought maybe it was my period [or] maybe it was muscle soreness from working out. But, eventually, this lump never went away.”
The next month, Thurston left L.A. to live in New York City before starting fertility treatments that would let her freeze her embryos. Days after Us Weekly exclusively revealed in March 2025 that Thurston and Jeff Arcuri tied the knot, she shared that her breast cancer had spread to her liver and put her at stage IV.
One year after her diagnosis, Thurston shared she had “stable” MRI and PET scan results.
“While that is a good thing, it is the first time in a year that my tumor isn’t shrinking, that it just is stagnant,” Thurston shared. “Which had me kind of spiraling a little bit.”
Thurston explained that the tumor remained stagnant because of pauses in her medication. “When you first start treatment, your body is in like shock,” she continued. “Suddenly I’m in menopause, suddenly I’m on really strong medication. So, it is common for the tumor to shrink significantly up front and then to kind of slow down that momentum as treatment continues. So overall in the last year my tumor has shrunk by 50 percent. That’s great news. The PET scan showed no new spread.”
Thurston also shared that she planned to have a double mastectomy.
“My latest update actually is that this Friday I’m going to be meeting with my surgeon to pursue a double mastectomy,” she explained. “My surgeon had approved it for my situation and so I’m going to see her in person this Friday and kind of go over things in detail to figure out what that looks like. ’Cause that’s a very big next step in my cancer treatment journey.”
