TikTok Creator Sydney Towle Shares Devastating Cancer Scan Update
Sydney Towle has spent nearly three years letting millions of people watch her fight cancer in real time. The 26-year-old TikTok creator was diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma — a rare bile duct cancer — at age 23, and her page has become a raw, unfiltered chronicle of what stage 4 cancer actually looks like when you’re in your twenties. In early March 2026, a new round of CT scan results showed her disease had progressed, and the series of videos that followed captured shock, grief, dark humor, and an existential reckoning about how she wants to spend whatever time she has.
On March 4, Towle posted a TikTok video reacting in real time to CT scan results 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.
It wasn’t. 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 is “a buildup of fluid” in the abdomen, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Towle addressed the finding directly, saying, “It’s not typically not a good sign.”
The news hit especially hard 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.”
The day after posting her initial reaction, Towle returned to TikTok to share that she had woken up crying. In a moment of unfiltered vulnerability, she said, “I just really didn’t want to get out of bed because it’s just getting harder and harder to hear bad news when you’re trying so hard.”
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.”
That framing speaks to a reality her followers understand well. With a rare cancer like cholangiocarcinoma, the treatment landscape is narrower than it is for more common cancers. Every option that doesn’t work shrinks what comes next.
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 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.”
Towle was diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma nearly three years ago 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 in the most literal sense.
Production of this article included the use of AI. It was reviewed and edited by a team of content specialists.
