Podcaster Ali Feller Diagnosed with Stage 4 Breast Cancer

Just eight months after ringing the bell to mark the end of her breast cancer treatment, Ali Feller revealed that her cancer has returned.

On June 6, the beloved podcast host and known as Ali on the Run announced on Instagram that she has been diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer that has spread to her bones. The cancer was discovered after struggling with chest pain.

“This intense, debilitating, at times immobilizing pain came out of nowhere. It was mild at first. It was there in Boston. It was bad by London,” she began, referring to the Boston and London marathons. “The weekend of my birthday party, I was riding on adrenaline, but by the end of each night, I could barely move.”

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Feller, who celebrated her 40th birthday on May 6, said her surgeon was at her birthday party and she mentioned the pain she was experiencing, including the little bump she noticed on her sternum.

“She felt it. I winced. I had the best weekend ever. By 8 AM that Monday morning, her office was calling to start scheduling appointments for me. I knew that probably wasn’t good,” she said. “It has been a whirlwind month of ultrasounds, CT scans, bone scans, biopsies, MRIs, PET scans, second opinions, and, this Tuesday, a port placement procedure hours before Annie’s kindergarten graduation.”

“Dr. Rosenkranz knew. She felt the bump and saw the amount of pain I was trying to power through and push aside. She let me enjoy my party. She gave me a bit more time to keep riding the highest highs of my life. Because now I know. We all know,” she continued. “It is Stage 4 metastatic breast cancer that has spread to my bones.”

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Feller was first diagnosed with breast cancer in May 2023. She underwent a double mastectomy, reconstruction, four rounds of chemotherapy and a year of immunotherapy. She completed treatment in September 2024, celebrating with a video on Instagram ringing the hospital bell. 

Now, sharing a photo from her hospital bed, she admitted that she’s “overwhelmed” due to the return of her disease. Her daughter is 6 years old.

“I am sad. I am scared. I am as delusionally optimistic as ever. I am angry,” she said. “I am convinced I’ll be an exception and not a statistic. I am residing fully in the denial phase, with a commitment to start the fighter phase next week.”

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Feller said she will start chemotherapy again on June 10, expecting more rounds than her first time. On her Instagram Stories, she posted a series of photos from the past month since her diagnosis. She admitted that although it’s hard, she’s trying to keep her head up.

“I’ve spent my whole career trying to remind loved ones and strangers alike that they’ve got this. That they’re doing great. Meanwhile, I’ve spent the past month thoroughly kicking my own ass,” she wrote. “I was so unafraid of recurrence. I thought my absence of fear was some kind of superpower, or at least an armor. And here we are. Metastatic. Incurable, by definition. Could I have prevented this? Should I have done something — a million things — differently?”

“I was living my best, happiest life. I had the dreamiest spring. It crashed down so hard, so fast, so unexpectedly,” she ended. “It’s a lot. It’s too much. Soon you’ll get better, right? (Cause you have to…)♥️”