Maria Menounos has revealed who she survived a fight with stage 2 pancreatic cancer.
The former E! News host, who opened up about surgery to remove a brain tumor in 2017 People that she was diagnosed in January and had surgery the following month to remove a pancreatic tumor.
After experiencing painful leg cramps, she went to the hospital, where she discovered she had type 1 diabetes, a disease that runs in her family. As she coped with that “new diagnosis” through insulin and a strict diet, she began to experience “excruciating abdominal pain coupled with diarrhea.”
At one point she felt like “someone ripped my insides out.”
Although a CT scan and extensive testing turned up nothing, she says Peopleshe had a whole body MRI, which showed a 3.9 cm mass that was later revealed to be a stage 2 pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor.
“I’m like ‘How on earth could I have a brain tumor and pancreatic cancer?’ she says, adding that she was thinking about how she and husband Keven Undergaro were expecting a baby girl, due this summer via surrogate.
In February, she underwent surgery to remove the tumor, part of her pancreas, her spleen, a large fibroid and 17 lymph nodes.
“It was super painful,” she says of the experience and recovery. “I couldn’t move or lift myself.”
The doctors of Menounos tell People that she appears to be fine and that she will not need any chemotherapy or additional treatment other than scans for the next five years.
“I’m so grateful and so happy,” she says. “God gave me a miracle. “I’m coming to appreciate that (my daughter) is so much more in my life than it was before this trip.”
Menounos left in 2017 E! Newswhere she had been a presenter since 2015, when she revealed she had surgery to remove a golf ball-sized brain tumor during her mother’s battle with stage 4 brain cancer. died in 2021.
