"Grey's Anatomy" viewers finally found out what was wrong with Katherine Heigl's character, Dr. Izzie Stevens, on the ABC drama Thursday night – she has a fast moving cancer with a 5 percent survival rate.
Izzie, who was having hallucinations of her dead fiance, Denny Duquette (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), earlier in the season, learned the bad news after asking the interns to diagnose a "Patient X."
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"Patient X," who actually is Izzie, was told by the latest crop of "Grey's" interns, including Meredith Grey's younger, half-sister Lexie (played by Chyler Leigh), her diagnosis.
"Metastatic melanoma with mets to the liver, skin and brain," Lexie said when asked by Izzie what "Patient X" has.
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"With chemo and radiation, girl's pretty much toast," one intern commented.
"Survival rate is 5 percent. If I were her, I'd go on a really good vacation," another intern quipped.
Later, Lexie gave Izzie a pep talk about fighting for survival, though she does not know that her mentor is the one with the condition.
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And Izzie finally told a friend about the problem at the end of the episode — Dr. Cristina Yang, played by Sandra Oh.
The diagnosis could allow Heigl an exit to the series.
Last month, her "Grey's" co-star, James Pickens Jr. said both Heigl and her pal, T.R. Knight, who plays Dr. George O'Malley, were leaving the series. But, just days later, James said his comments were just "rumors." Shonda Rhimes, creator of the show, also denied the two are leaving.
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