Jackie Tohn reveals she underwent double mastectomy after health scare

Jackie Tohn is opening up about a recent health scare.

The "Nobody Wants This" star, 45, revealed on a Friday, May 15, episode of the "Today" show new details involving her father – and herself.

Tohn said in January 2025, her father found metastatic carcinomas but doctors couldn't determine where the primary cancer in her body was located. And so, he underwent a panel of hereditary genetic testing that revealed he tested positive for the BRCA1 gene and was diagnosed with male breast cancer.

In June, Tohn said she also received genetic testing, which revealed she carried the BRCA1 mutation and had an 85% chance of getting breast cancer. She mentioned her dad's diagnosis during a routine mammogram, where doctors urged her to get tested for the BRCA gene before she left and she said she realized, "Oh, this is serious."

"So what's crazy is, when you get a diagnosis like this, you don't know your options," she said. "It's like someone giving you a single nail and being, like, 'Build the house. There's a field,' And so I said, 'OK, let me put on my big girl pants, and I'm just doing this.' And so then I had to find a whole medical team and I love who I landed on."

By December, she said she underwent a preventive double mastectomy and breast reconstruction.

An analysis revealed that the tissue she removed had multiple pre-cancerous cells in both breasts. "When the doctor called me, in a wonderful way, she was almost shrieking with joy," she said.

Jackie Tohn encourages genetic testing

Tohn said she is grateful she was encouraged to get genetically tested during her mammogram appointment. "So many hundreds of things had to happen to line it up exactly for me to be able to have this information," she said.

In a paid partnership with Myriad, Tohn is urging people to undergo genetic testing, especially if their family history suggests they are at a predisposed risk. She said the risk includes people who have a family member with a rare cancer like her father, people with multiple family members who have had cancer or people with family members diagnosed with cancer at a young age.

About 1 in 400 people in the general population carry BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations, though for Ashkenazi Jewish people it's approximately 1 in 40, according to the National Cancer Institute.

Testing for the BCRA1 and BCRA2 is typically done through a blood or saliva sample, Dr. Dana Zakalik, an oncologist at Corewell Health's Nancy and James Grosfeld Cancer Genetics Center in Michigan, previously told USA TODAY in 2024. Patients can consult their primary care physician for referrals to genetic counselors.

According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, those with a BRCA mutation have a 45-85% chance of developing breast cancer at some point in their life.

Contributing: David Oliver, USA TODAY