![\"Cassandra](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1e87435fd0d83391f109343617678ddc3c7f5ccad1d3068cebaf585b0a56e308.jpeg\")
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Former journalist Cassandra Thorburn was fit and healthy when she was suddenly diagnosed with rare occult breast cancer earlier this year.\u00a0@cassthorburn<\/p>\n
\u201cI literally got kissed on the arse by an angel who sent me my reminder,\u201d Thorburn, 55, told nine.com.au.<\/p>\n
Australian women, trans and gender diverse people should undergo free breast screening every two years from the age of 50 to 74, and can request free screening after 75 or from as young as 40.<\/a><\/p>\n There were no red flags at Thorburn\u2019s screening, so she thought she was in the clear.<\/p>\n \u201cThe mammogram didn\u2019t show anything in my breast because there was nothing to see in my breast. I didn\u2019t have a lump,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat it did show was a grey area on the side of the mammogram towards my underarm.\u201d<\/p>\n An ultrasound, a biopsy, and one week later, Thorburn was told she had breast cancer.<\/p>\n \u201cThat doesn\u2019t make any sense. How can you be told you\u2019ve got breast cancer without a lump?\u201d she recalls thinking.<\/p>\n \u201cThey couldn\u2019t explain it … there was no lump I could have found on my own.\u201d<\/p>\n Thorburn had stage three occult breast cancer, a rare form that accounts for less than two per cent of diagnoses in Australia. It occurs when the cancer spreads to other parts of the body (usually the lymph nodes in the armpits) without a visible primary cancer in the breast.<\/p>\n Because there is no lump that can be felt by hand or seen on a scan, occult breast cancer often goes undiagnosed until the later stages, when survival rates drop.<\/p>\n In hindsight, Thorburn believes signs of the cancer may have been there before her life-changing mammogram.<\/p>\n \u201cI was doing Muay Thai at the time, I was quite fit, and sometimes I thought \u2018do I have a sore underarm?\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n But Thorburn never suspected it was anything serious, let alone cancer.<\/p>\n Telling her children Jackson, 27, Ava (who goes by Willow), 21, and River, 19, whom she shares with ex-husband Karl Stefanovic, was tough, but at least they were old enough to understand.<\/p>\n \u201cMy chemo buddy, who I\u2019ve gone through chemotherapy and surgeries with, she has a one-year-old and a four-year-old,\u201d Thorburn said.<\/p>\n \u201cHow do you have that conversation with a one- and four-year-old? I was very fortunate, I\u2019m having a conversation with adults.\u201d<\/p>\n Jackson, Willow and River had never heard of occult breast cancer, nor had anyone in Thorburn\u2019s life, so she started sharing her journey on social media.<\/p>\n The goal was to spread awareness.<\/p>\n Instead, Thorburn\u2019s posts sparked headlines, many of which referred to her as \u2018Karl Stefanovic\u2019s ex\u2019 even though the pair split a decade ago.<\/p>\n \u201cI never really had a public profile. Yes, I did Dancing With The Stars and I worked in the media for a long time, but I was not a public person,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Telling her adult kids she had cancer was difficult, but Thorburn can\u2019t imagine explaining it to small children.\u00a0@cassthorburn<\/p>\n \u201cThat was thrown on me because of a traumatic situation I went through in my life, and that was the media\u2019s decision to do that to me. <\/p>\n \u201cThe media decided that because I was being divorced from someone, that they would make me a [public figure], but that\u2019s not who I was, nor did it have anything to do with my actual life.\u201d<\/p>\n If she must endure the spotlight, she intends to use it for something good.<\/p>\n Thorburn kept posting about breast cancer as she underwent months of chemotherapy, surgeries, and started radiation, all while still working.<\/p>\n![\"Cassandra](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/43328ba09e2bf0f7819f29a7d4e0ca00bf2b59a47c3230b9f8af623f09768dc5.jpeg\")
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