TV presenter Maria Menounos has revealed she has stage 2 pancreatic cancer.
The pregnant former E! News host, 44, was diagnosed in January and secretly underwent surgery to remove a 3.9cm tumor.
4
4
Maria – who is expecting a baby with her husband Kevin Undergaro this summer – told PEOPLE that the surgery was successful.
The presenter said that detecting the cancer early was key in her case.
“When you’re met with a potential death sentence, everything changes,” she told the outlet.
“I need people to know there are places they can go to catch things early.
“You can’t let fear get in the way. I had that moment where I thought I was a goner – but I’m okay because I caught this early enough.”
Maria’s cancer diagnosis came after she was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes – which runs in her family – in 2022 and an episode of “excruciating abdominal pain coupled with diarrhea later that year.
When she had a CT scan for her gastrointestinal symptoms last fall, nothing was uncovered – which is common with pancreatic cancer.
Read Related Also: ‘Brutal’: Arsenal legend Petit shares what he was told about Palace's sacking of Vieira
“They said, ‘Everything’s fine.’ But I kept having pains,” Maria recalled, adding that it felt like “someone was tearing my insides apart.”
She then had a full-body MRI, which showed the mass on her pancreas.
A biopsy revealed it was a cancerous neuroendocrine tumor.
Maria had the tumor surgically removed on February 16, as well as part of her pancreas, her spleen, a fibroid, and 17 lymph nodes.
She does not need chemotherapy or additional treatment, although doctors told the presenter to get annual scans for the next five years.
Amid her health issues, Maria is expecting her first child, a baby girl, with husband Kevin via a surrogate.
She told PEOPLE she feels “so grateful and so lucky” to have recovered from her surgery and will “appreciate” her child “so mich more.”
This is not Maria’s first health scare, as she had a brain tumor removed in 2017.
Doctors found a golf ball-sized growth pushing on her facial nerves after she complained of dizziness, headaches and slurred speech.
4
4
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;
n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,
document,’script’,’
fbq(‘init’, ‘752905198150451’);
fbq(‘track’, “PageView”);
