TikTok Influencer Sydney Towle Shares Emotional Update After Cancer Scans
Sydney Towle, a 26-year-old TikTok creator who has spent nearly three years documenting her fight with a rare bile duct cancer called cholangiocarcinoma, shared a series of emotional updates in early March 2026 after new CT scan results showed her disease had progressed — and then turned to her community with raw questions about work, life, and what it means to live on your own terms.
On March 4, Towle posted a TikTok video reacting in real time to the results of CT scans related to her cholangiocarcinoma diagnosis. She told viewers she had a “bad feeling” about the scans before reviewing the report but hoped the feeling was anxiety.
The results confirmed those fears. After reading the report, Towle said, “everything has increased in size.”
She explained through tears that “All the tumors in my liver have grown. Some of the lymph nodes have grown. It also says that my spleen is increased in size, and I now have ascites.”
Ascites, according to the Cleveland Clinic, is “a buildup of fluid” in the abdomen. Towle addressed the significance of the finding directly, saying, “It’s not typically not a good sign.”
The results were especially crushing given what Towle had been through in recent months. She previously underwent surgery in the summer of 2025 to receive a hepatic pump, a device designed to deliver high doses of chemotherapy directly to the liver.
It was a treatment she and her followers had placed significant hope in. Reflecting on the scan results, Towle said, “I thought the pump was gonna do her a big one. I’m not really sure what to do. Definitely not the news I was hoping for, but I had a feeling.”
By March 7, Towle posted another update giving more context about where she was emotionally. She explained that the results “hit harder than it normally does,” adding that there are “only so many doors that you can open and then have closed on you, especially with a rare cancer.”
Despite the devastating news, Towle outlined a path forward. She said she plans to travel to the National Institutes of Health to be screened for a possible clinical trial.
She also said her oncologist may recommend a new chemotherapy treatment, which she described as “one of the last chemo options available for my type of cancer.”
In a statement issued to People, Towle struck a notably hopeful tone even amid the difficulty. She said, “Despite how hard the news is in the moment, I am still very hopeful given how many options continue to become available for those of us facing this and similar diseases.”
On March 9, Towle posted a “Get Ready With Me” video as she prepared for a chemo appointment. She opened with, “Let’s go beat cancer’s a–.”
In the video, she walked through her week ahead. She said, “I’m going to meet with my oncologist and talk about the results for the first time…it will be a very long week because we have chemo today, and then I’m traveling on Wednesday to go to the NH on Thursday, and then back up to New York. Been struggling a lot at this point because, one, I’ve just been not feeling great, and I don’t know if that’s just in my head. Now I’m very much getting to the point, and I’ve talked about this a lot. I have worked since I was diagnosed. I’ve never taken any medical leave, despite it being available.”
Towle was diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma at age 23 and has documented her treatment journey on TikTok since sharing her diagnosis publicly. Over that time, she has built not just a following but a genuine community — one that shows up in her comments, shares her videos, and treats her updates as appointment viewing.
As Towle weighs her next steps — a potential clinical trial at the National Institutes of Health, a possible new chemotherapy regimen, and the deeply personal question of whether to step back from work — her community will be watching and showing up the way they always have.
Production of this article included the use of AI. It was reviewed and edited by a team of content specialists.
