TikTok Creator Sydney Towle Opens Up After Stage 4 Cancer Scans Show Progression
At 26, Sydney Towle is facing decisions no young person should have to make. She is weighing treatment options for a rare and aggressive cancer, contemplating whether to take medical leave from work for the first time since her diagnosis, and grappling with the desire to simply live her life while time feels increasingly uncertain.
Towle, who has spent nearly three years documenting her cancer journey on TikTok, shared a series of emotional updates in early March 2026 after CT scan results showed her disease had progressed.
On March 4, Towle posted a TikTok video reacting to results related to her diagnosis of cholangiocarcinoma, a rare bile duct cancer she was first diagnosed with at age 23. She said she had a “bad feeling” about the scans before reviewing the report but hoped the feeling was anxiety.
The news confirmed her fears.
“Everything has increased in size,” Towle said. 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 said in her video, “It’s not typically not a good sign.”
The results were particularly difficult because she had previously undergone surgery in the summer of 2025 to receive a hepatic pump, a device designed to deliver high doses of chemotherapy directly to the liver. That procedure had been a source of hope.
“I thought the pump was gonna do her a big one,” Towle said. “I’m not really sure what to do. Definitely not the news I was hoping for, but I had a feeling.”
On March 7, she posted another update explaining that the results “hit harder than it normally does.” She acknowledged the emotional toll of repeatedly confronting setbacks, 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 heartbreak, Towle outlined next steps. She plans to travel to the National Institutes of Health to be screened for a possible clinical trial. Her oncologist may also 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 more hopeful note: “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.”
In another March 9 video, Towle spoke openly about the decisions weighing on her.
“And I am getting to the point where I’m like, am I just going to work until I’m in a hospital bed? And that’s not what I want for myself. I wanna live my life, and I don’t want to. And I feel like I keep waiting for something to happen like that next thing to force me to make that decision, because I am extremely stressed out all the time, and I think that’s also probably not good for my physical health … so I am really just contemplating what I want to do next,” Towle said.
Towle was diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma nearly three years ago and has documented her treatment journey on TikTok since sharing her diagnosis publicly. Cholangiocarcinoma is considered one of the rarer forms of cancer, and a stage 4 designation typically indicates the disease has spread beyond its point of origin.
Throughout the years since her diagnosis, Towle has used the platform to share medical updates and the emotional reality of being a young person navigating a life-threatening illness — from the fear that accompanies every new scan to the exhaustion of balancing work, treatment and the desire to live fully.
Production of this article included the use of AI. It was reviewed and edited by a team of content specialists.
