SPOILER ALERT! Heigl: Grey’s Doc Has Cancer, 5 Percent Chance of Survival
Katherine Heigl’s character Dr. Izzie Stevens revealed she’s dying of cancer on last night’s Grey’s Anatomy — a scoop Us Weekly first reported eight months ago.
On the show, Izzie asked her interns do diagnose “Patient X” — which they don’t know is really her. Lexie (Chyler Leigh) discovers it’s metastatic melanoma — skin cancer — and it’s spread to her brain. (Which explains those hallucinations earlier this season of her dead ex Denny Ducette, played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan.)
“The girl’s pretty much toast,” an intern says. “Survival rate is five percent,” adds another.
In July, Us Weekly reported show higher ups were considering killing Heigl off after she withdrew from Emmy contention because she didn’t feel she was “given the material this season to warrant an Emmy nomination.”
“[Producer] Shonda [Rhimes] and the writers are pissed at her,” the source told Us then, adding that producers were considering giving her a brain tumor. “It’s their way of screwing with her. She won’t know whether she’s going to live or die.”
(”If her character does get a brain tumor, she’ll probably get an Emmy!” a source joked to Us.)
ABC denied Izzie would die, saying, “Katherine is absolutely staying with the show.” Rhimes also said “No” when asked about the plot.
In February, James Pickens Jr. (hospital chief Dr. Richard Webber) confirmed to Usmagazine.com that she’s leaving the show.
“Wherever Katherine goes, I wish her nothing but the best,” he told Us.
“Katherine is ready to move on to the next chapter,” a set source told Us then.
Also out the door, according to Pickens: T.R. Knight. “He just wanted to pursue other career paths,” he told Us at the NAACP Awards luncheon.
Rhimes also claims that’s “not true,” so stay tuned.
