Olivia Munn revealed that she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2023 and chose to keep the news private for one year. In an open letter that she shared to Instagram in March 2024, the former star of The Newsroom detailed how her luminal B cancer was discovered and why she chose to withhold the information from the public eye until now.
Get an update on Olivia’s health and learn more about her breast cancer diagnosis.
Olivia Munn Was Diagnosed With Luminal B Cancer
On March 13, 2024, the X-Men: Apocalypse star recollected the moment when her cancer was discovered in an Instagram post.
“In February of 2023, in an effort to be proactive about my health, I took a genetic test that checks you for 90 different cancer genes,” Olivia began.”Two months later, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. … In the past ten months, I have had four surgeries, so many days spent in bed I can’t even count…surprisingly, I’ve only cried twice. I’ve tended to let people see me when I have energy, when I can get dressed and get out of the house, when I can take my baby boy to the park. I’ve kept the diagnosis and the worry, and the recovery and the pain medicine, and the paper gowns private.”
Olivia’s reason for withholding the cancer diagnosis from the public was because she “needed to catch [her] breath and get through some of the hardest parts before sharing.”
“I wouldn’t have found my cancer for another year — at my next scheduled mammogram — except that my OBGYN, Dr. Thais Aliabadi, decided to calculate my breast cancer risk assessment score,” Olivia continued, adding, “The fact that she did saved my life.”
After looking through various aspects such as family cancer history and giving birth to a child over the age of 30, the doctor determined that Olivia’s “lifetime risk” was 37 percent.
“Because of that score, I was sent to get an MRI, which led to an ultrasound, which then led to a biopsy,” Olivia explained. “The biopsy showed that I had luminal B cancer in both breasts. Luminal B is an aggressive, fast-moving cancer. Thirty days after that biopsy, I had a double mastectomy. I went from feeling completely fine one day to waking up in a hospital bed after a 10-hour surgery the next.”
Olivia also noted that she is “lucky” because she and her doctor “caught it with enough time that [she] had options.” At the end of her message, Olivia noted, “I want the same for any woman who might have to face this one day.”
What Is Luminal B Cancer?
According to City of Hope’s cancercenter.com, luminal B is “expresses estrogen or progesterone (or both) hormone receptors (HR)” and “doesn’t express human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) proteins.”
The website also notes that the two types of breast cancer, luminal A and B, differ because B “expresses the HER2 protein, which may quicken the growth of cancer cells. As a result, luminal B breast cancer is typically more aggressive and receives a higher grade and a poorer prognosis than luminal A.”
How Is Olivia Doing Now?
Despite her health scare, Olivia has attended multiple public events over the past year. Her most recent outing was at the 2024 Oscars, which took place in Los Angeles just days before she announced her cancer diagnosis.
Since Olivia pointed out that her doctors discovered her condition “with enough time” to give her “options,” she is seemingly recovering well from the diagnosis but has yet to reveal is she is cancer-free.