Lauren Tom said her 25-year-old daughter, Ellie, is battling ostesarcoma, and she used Sunday’s Instagram post to ask for prayers and support. The disclosure puts a rare bone cancer diagnosis at the center of the family’s immediate focus, with treatment support already running through relatives, friends, and doctors and nurses at Cedar Sinai.
Ellie and Lauren Tom
“I wanted to share some tough news today,” Tom wrote, before identifying Ellie as “my beautiful daughter” and saying she is “currently battling osteosarcoma (bone cancer).” She also asked fans to keep Ellie in their prayers “for a complete recovery,” and thanked people for reading and for their support.
Tom later wrote to Ellie on Instagram that she was “strong” and “brave,” and told her she was “an amazing, deep, sensitive, wise, strong, brave, intelligent, and funny soul. Beautiful inside and out.” That public message matters because it frames this as more than a private family note: Tom is asking her audience to become part of the support system while the family handles the medical work ahead.
Cedar Sinai support
Tom said her family is doing everything it can to aid Ellie’s healing and thanked friends and family, along with the doctors and nurses at Cedar Sinai, for their support, love, and care. She also invoked Fred Rogers’ line, “Look for the helpers,” which was her way of pointing to the people around Ellie rather than trying to dress up the diagnosis.
Osteosarcoma is a rare type of bone cancer that most often develops in the arms or legs, and the Cleveland Clinic says treatment typically involves chemotherapy and surgery. The same source says outcomes depend on whether the cancer has spread beyond the bone, which is the detail that will shape everything from treatment intensity to recovery expectations.
Friends and The Joy Luck Club
Tom’s public profile gives the post extra reach. She is best known to television audiences for playing Julie, Ross Geller’s girlfriend, during the second season of Friends, and she broke out in The Joy Luck Club in 1993 before later voice roles in Futurama, King of the Hill, and American Dad! gave her a wider audience.
The immediate question is whether Ellie has started treatment yet and what the next step will be, because those details will determine how quickly the family moves from announcement to care. For now, Tom has made the stake clear: Ellie is 25, the diagnosis is ostesarcoma, and the family is asking for support while the path ahead stays long.
