Published Apr 26, 2026

‘Bachelorette’ Star Katie Thurston, 35, Celebrates Milestone Purchase With Husband After Addressing Difficult Decisions That Come With Battling Breast Cancer

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Understanding Katie Thurston's Treatment Decisions

Stage 4 breast cancer survivor Katie Thurston has just celebrated a major milestone with her husband by announcing they bought a fixer-upper Victorian home, not long after the “Bachelor” star addressed her decision-making process when it comes to her cancer fight.
Thurston is preparing for her double mastectomy (removal of both breasts), coordinating the surgery with pauses in certain medications while continuing hormone‑suppression therapy that remains central to her treatment.
After earlier tumor shrinkage allowed her to delay surgery, she says she’s ready to move forward, noting that “removing the tumor” will be an important step in her ongoing fight against metastatic breast cancer.
Thurston’s type of cancer is marked by the presence of hormones estrogen receptors (ER), progesterone receptors (PR), and HER2. This combination accounts for just 5–10% of all breast cancer cases and typically requires a layered treatment plan involving chemotherapy, HER2‑targeted therapy, and hormone therapy.
Thurston previously shared that her treatment regimen includes ribociclib, a targeted therapy taken with endocrine therapy. Lleuprolide, a hormone therapy, and Letrozole, which is an aromatase inhibitor that reduces the body’s estrogen production, are commonly used in postmenopausal women with hormone-sensitive breast cancer.

“Bachelorette” alum Katie Thurston, who is soon to undergo a double mastectomy as the next phase of her metastatic breast cancer treatment, is celebrating a milestone purchase with her husband shortly after addressing the difficult decisions that come along with battling a disease.

The 35-year-old TV personality, who married comedian Jeff Arcuri last year, has just purchased a Victorian-style home that needs a lot of upgrades.

“Life update: @jarcuri and I bought a house! But not just any house, but one that will require a lot TLC to get her ready,” Thurston captioned a video post on Instagram, featuring her and her husband inside their new empty home, with their beloved dog prancing around.

“This is a huge project we will be documenting over the next year with the help of @salacuse and @jaedon.meek! This is just the beginning as we create our demo plan with the help of @re_design_architects.”

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Prior to announcing the milestone purchase, Bachelor Nation reported that Thurston addressed comments on social media about why she chose to wait to undergo surgery to remove her breasts.

As per Bachelor Nation, she said in a since-deleted Instagram video, “I love how this person just simplifies breast cancer and the major decisions that go into treatment and care and quality of life as if I am just delaying because I’m attached to my breasts.

“I’m here trying to survive. And a lot goes into play and a lot of decisions go into consideration when deciding the best course of action.”

She reportedly continued, “For me personally, as well as all of us breast cancer survivors, when I was first diagnosed with breast cancer the [tumor] size was too big to remove. I just didn’t have that option.

“And treatment was gonna have to happen first.”

Facing Breast Cancer Today, You Have Choices: Making Better-Informed Decisions After Active Treatment

Thurston wrote alongside the footage, according to the report, “Rushing to amputate your breasts isn’t exactly an option made quickly or easily, and sometimes not even an option at all.

“If you’ve never been diagnosed with #breastcancer, and especially if you aren’t educated in breast cancer, you should refrain from judgement, because until you’ve been through it, you simply just do not understand. Listen and learn as they say!”

Last month, Thurston took to Instagram to share that her double mastectomy was scheduled for April 29th and she refuses to delay it any longer, as it was previously postponed.

Noting how she’ll have a change in her treatment plan, she explained, “Because of the timing of my medication break and liver recovery and the date of my surgery, which also requires pausing Kisqali, I’ll continue to pause treatment for another two months.”

She also explained that her hormone‑suppression therapies, such as Lupron and letrozole, “do a lot of the heavy lifting” in her treatment and will continue uninterrupted.

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In another update, shared by Thurston on Instagram, she offered some more insight into why she chose to undergo a double mastectomy and get implants.

She said, “I’m finally going to have my surgery. I have opted for a double mastectomy and I’ve been approved to have a double mastectomy. And a couple things come into play. One, I’m 35 and fairly healthy. My stage four ‘status’ …I was barely stage four, It had spread to my liver ever so slightly. However, it cleared up fairly quickly once I started treatment.

“I also have an ATM genetic mutation, so all these things kind of went into deciding that that was the surgery that I wanted to have. And so it’s important to find a team who supports you, who makes you feel informed, and allows you to make informed decisions. And that’s where this next topic comes into play.”

Thurston added, “So I’ll be having surgery for where then I will go straight to implant. People are very, very quick to come at me when they hear implant and they want to tell me about breast implant illness, the risks, all these different things.

“It bothers me because I already have enough in my life, right? I’m diagnosed with breast cancer, it’s stage four, I don’t need negative Nancy telling me the risks of getting implants. I’ve done my research, I know the risks, I’ve talked to my medical team…so that is what I’ve decided to do. I’m going straight to implant. There’s lots of different things that people do when opting for surgery and surgery types. And yes, there are risks with that.”

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Katie Thurston’s Ongoing Breast Cancer Treatment Journey

When it comes to breast cancer surgery, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. Choosing between a lumpectomy and a mastectomy is a deeply personal decision—one that depends on a range of medical and emotional factors.

“As a breast surgeon, my job is to help patients understand that their long-term survival with mastectomy is equivalent to that with lumpectomy and radiation,” says Dr. Sarah Cate, Chief of Breast Surgery at Stamford Hospital.

Still, many women request a double mastectomy (removal of both breasts), believing it offers the best protection against recurrence. But that’s not always the case. The size of the tumor, its genetic profile, and a patient’s family history all play a role in determining the most appropriate surgical path.

WATCH: Decisions Surrounding Breast Reconstruction

“Mastectomy has very specific indications,” Dr. Cate explains.

“Some of the things that would predict a mastectomy are things like a large tumor size to breast ratio, or having cancer in more than one area of the breast, or having a genetic mutation.”

Katie Thurston is preparing for a double mastectomy. While this procedure is often part of treatment, it’s also used preventatively for women at high risk of developing breast cancer.

“A double mastectomy typically takes about two hours for the cancer part of the operation, the removal of the tissue,” says Dr. Elisa Port, Chief of Breast Surgery at Mount Sinai Health System.

“The real length, the total length of the surgery, can often depend on what type of reconstruction [a patient] has.”

WATCH: What Goes Into a Double Mastectomy

Today, most women choose to undergo some form of reconstruction, which can significantly extend the duration of surgery—especially when tissue is transferred from another part of the body.

“When you take tissue from another part of the body and transfer it to fill in the empty space where the breasts are, this is a very long operation,” Dr. Port says.

“It can take anywhere from six to 12 hours because it’s really like having a tummy tuck and then transferring the tissue and grafting the tissue, connecting the vessels, so those tissues have blood flow to live in,” Dr. Port adds.

For women with a strong family history or a known genetic mutation—such as BRCA1 or BRCA2—the decision to undergo a preventative mastectomy may be the most effective way to reduce their risk.

“Risk-reducing mastectomies are an operation where we take women at, usually, very high risk for getting breast cancer,” Dr. Port explains. “For genetic mutation carriers, who are the ones at the highest risk, there’s unfortunately only one way to actually prevent breast cancer.”

Women who test positive for a BRCA mutation typically face two options.

“One is what’s called high-risk surveillance, which means we check them every six months or so—mammograms, MRIs—with the hope that if, God forbid, they develop breast cancer, we pick it up early,” Dr. Port says. “But that’s not prevention, that’s early detection.”

“Early detection is a goal, it’s not a guarantee. For the woman who wants to be more proactive about actually preventing breast cancer, or as we say, reducing her risk, unfortunately, the only way to do that is to remove the actual tissue at risk, and that is the breast tissue,” she adds.

Thurston’s Ongoing Treatment

Thurston previously shared that her treatment regimen includes three key medications:

Kisqali (ribociclib): Approved by the FDA in 2017, this targeted therapy is used in combination with endocrine therapy to treat HR+/HER2- breast cancer. It works by slowing the progression of cancer, offering a more tolerable alternative to traditional chemotherapy.
Lupron (leuprolide): A hormone therapy injection that lowers estrogen levels in the body, helping to prevent the cancer from growing.
Letrozole: An aromatase inhibitor that reduces the body’s estrogen production, commonly used in postmenopausal women with hormone-sensitive breast cancer.

‘This Panel Felt Like a Big Hug’ — Optimistic For The Future & Starting The Next Chapter

Remember, although stage 4 breast cancer is not curable, several treatment options exist that can extend the life of patients.

Treatment options depend on the stage, type of primary breast cancer, and whether hormone receptors are positive.

Treatment can include a combination of:

Chemotherapy: Oral or IV medications that are toxic to tumor cells
Hormonal therapies: Drugs that lower estrogen levels or block estrogen receptors from allowing the cancer cells to grow
Targeted therapies: Drugs that target your tumor’s specific gene mutations
Immunotherapy: Medications that stimulate your immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells
Radiation: The use of high-energy rays to kill tumor cells and shrink tumors
Surgery: To remove a cancerous tumor or lymph nodes (uncommon with stage IV; more common in stages I, II, and III)
Clinical trials: Studies of new medications, treatments, and other therapies offer hope for better outcomes.

If you’re considering a mastectomy, it can be helpful to go into the conversation with your doctor prepared.

SurvivorNet’s proprietary AI tool, “My Health Questions,” can support you along the way by providing evidence‑based answers aligned with cancer treatment guidelines and informed by oncologists across multiple specialties.

Advice On Thriving Through and After Cancer

Studies prove that patients who are able to stay upbeat and positive often have better treatment outcomes. It doesn’t really matter what you do, but experts such as Dr. Dana Chase, a gynecologic oncologist at Arizona Oncology, recommend doing whatever makes you happy.

“We know from good studies that emotional health is associated with survival, meaning better quality of life is associated with better outcomes,” Chase told SurvivorNet in a previous interview.

“So working on your emotional health, your physical well-being, your social environment [and] your emotional well-being are important and can impact your survival. If that’s related to what activities you do that bring you joy, then you should try to do more of those activities.”

“A positive attitude is really important,” Dr. Zuri Murrell, a colorectal surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles tells Survivornet.

If you have just been diagnosed with cancer, negative feelings are normal. Totally normal. Men and women react differently. Anger, shame, fear, anxiety. It’s to be expected. Experienced doctors will tell you that people who find a way to work through the emotions and stay positive do end up doing better.

Stay Positive, It Matters

“My patients who thrive, even with stage 4 cancer, from the time that they, about a month after they’re diagnosed, I kind of am pretty good at seeing who is going to be OK,” Dr. Murrell says.

“Now doesn’t that mean I’m good at saying that the cancer won’t grow. But I’m pretty good at telling what kind of patient are going to still have this attitude and probably going to live the longest, even with bad, bad disease. And those are patients who, they have gratitude in life.”

Reaching Milestones as a Cancer Survivor

Reaching milestones during or after a cancer battle, even many years later, is huge and just hits different for many survivors.

Special moments such as buying a house, getting married, reaching another birthday, or a “cancerversary” may mean even more to you than those events did previously, so it’s important to take them all in and celebrate all that you’ve overcome.

Chrissy Degennaro is also a cancer warrior determined to keep enjoying these precious milestones. She has been battling a rare blood cancer called multiple myeloma for 14 years, and was first diagnosed when she was just 36 years old with a 2-year-old son.

I’m Able to Be Here For More Milestones — One Cancer Survivor’s Incredible Story

When she was given her diagnosis, she almost expected to not be able to see him enter kindergarten. But thanks to 27 rounds of chemotherapy, two stem cell transplants, a CAR-T cell trial and two CAR-T cell transplants over following 14 years, she’s able to keep making memories with her family.

“You know, I do live one day at a time,” Chrissy previously told SurvivorNet. “Now, maybe I can go a week, a month, but things are looking pretty good. I’m able to be here for more milestones for my son, for more holidays, more birthdays. I do feel like I have had another chance at life.”