Jenna Fischer reveals she had breast cancer but is now cancer-free
The Office star learned in December 2023 that she had an aggressive form of breast cancer
Photo by Albert L. Ortega (Getty Images)
The Office’s Jenna Fischer shared her breast cancer diagnosis on Instagram earlier today, announcing that she is now cancer-free. Her cancer was largely unknown to the public—though we’re happy to hear that one of our favorite Office Ladies is doing better.
Over a series of slides and in commemoration of Breast Cancer Awareness month, Fischer said that in October 2023, after making a Michael Scott joke about needing “to take care of her ticking time bags,” doctors found “something” on her left breast after an inconclusive mammogram. That December, she learned she had Stage 1 triple positive breast cancer, a particularly aggressive form of the disease but one that is “highly responsive to treatment.”
Luckily, they caught the cancer early, and it had not spread to the rest of her body. In January 2024, doctors removed the lump, but triple positive breast cancer still requires chemo and radiation therapy. During her treatment, Fischer says her hair fell out, and she began wearing wigs and hats with hair, which her family “affectionately called Wigats.” After 12 rounds of weekly chemo, three weeks of radiation, infusions of Herceptin, and a daily dose of Tamoxifen, Fischer is “happy to say I’m feeling great.”
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“I’m making this announcement for a few reasons,” she wrote. “One, I’m ready to ditch the wigs. Two, to implore you to get your annual mammograms. You can also ask your doctor to calculate your Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Score and get additional screenings required. I’m serious, call your doctor right now. My tumor was so small it could not be felt on a physical exam. If I had waited six months longer, things could have been much worse.”
“I’m happy to say that I was recently re-screened, and the treatments worked. I am cancer free. I will continue to be treated and monitored to help stay that way[…]Take it from Pam and her Pam Pams. Michael was right. Get ’em checked, ladies. And know that should you get a breast cancer diagnosis, there is a village waiting to care for you.”