Jenna Fischer Announces Secret Breast Cancer Diagnosis, Says She’s Now Cancer-Free

Jenna Fischer, best known for playing Pam Beesly in the hit TV series The Office, posted today on Instagram that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer last December in 2023. After a year of treatment, and while keeping her diagnosis under wraps, she has announced she is now cancer-free.

Fischer writes in her Instagram post that she learned she had stage 1 triple positive breast cancer two months after a routine mammogram, which came back with abnormal results. According to the actor, doctors found a lump in her left breast, and officially diagnosed her with the aggressive form of breast cancer soon after. Thankfully, Fischer writes that the cancer hadn’t spread to other parts of her body, and even more thankfully, this type of cancer tends to be highly responsive to treatment, according to MD Anderson Cancer Center.

In her series of Instagram slides, Fischer details her year of undergoing treatments. On January 1, 2024, she had a lumpectomy to remove the tumor. In February, she began 12 rounds of chemotherapy, and then in June, three weeks of radiation. Fischer notes that she still continues to get infusions of Herceptin (a type of breast and stomach cancer drug) and Tamoxifen (a selective estrogen modulator used to breast treat cancer). “I’m happy to say I’m feeling great,” Fischer writes in her post.

While in treatment, Fischer says she continued working on her podcast Office Ladies to maintain a sense of normalcy, though she still kept quiet about her diagnosis. She also lost her hair during chemotherapy, but, “thanks to some great wigs and hats with hair—which my family affectionately called Wigats—I have been able to wait until now to reveal all that has been going on for me,” she writes.

Fischer says the reason she’s sharing her story now is two-fold: “One, I’m ready to ditch the wigs. Two, to implore you to get your annual mammograms.” She urges followers to ask their doctors to calculate their Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Score and get any additional screenings necessary.

“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 me stay that way,” she writes. And in a nod to her beloved Office character, signs off the post by quoting Michael Scott, saying, “Get ’em checked, ladies.”

The American Cancer Society guidelines recommend all women between ages 40 and 44 at average risk for breast cancer get mammograms once a year. If you have a family history of breast cancer, your doctor may recommend you start getting them sooner. Reach out to your OB/GYN for more information about scheduling.