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Now three months into her recovery, Menounos is opening up about her cancer battle.
WASHINGTON — Entertainment journalist Maria Menounos has revealed that she is recovering from pancreatic cancer.
The former "E! News" correspondent opened up to PEOPLE about her battle with Stage 2 cancer while also expecting her first child via surrogate this summer.
Menounos recalled how it all began last June when she was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes after suffering from severe leg cramps. Then in November, she was back in the hospital with excruciating abdominal pain coupled with diarrhea.
While extensive testing revealed nothing, a friend who owns a company that does whole-body MRI screening convinced her to try one. Menounos explained to People that the screening found a nearly 4 centimeter mass on her pancreas, which a biopsy confirmed was Stage 2 pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor, a form of cancer.
Pancreatic cancer is considered the most lethal cancer with an overall five-year survival rate at just about 7%, according to the Mayo Clinic. It's the same type of cancer that the late Alex Trebek fought through in the last two years of his life.
Menounos has faced her share of health scares in recent years. In 2017, she had a benign meningioma brain tumor removed.
"I'm like 'How in the freaking world can I have a brain tumor and pancreatic cancer?' " she told the magazine. "All I could think was that I have a baby coming."
During an emotional interview Thursday on "Today," Menounos recalled all the emotions hitting her the morning after she got the cancer diagnosis.
"How could God finally bless me with a baby after 10 years, and now I’m not going to get to meet her," Menounos described.
On Feb. 16, she underwent surgery to remove the tumor along with part of her pancreas, her spleen, 17 lymph nodes and a large fibroid.
Now three months into her recovery, Menounos is opening up about her cancer battle and is encouraging others to advocate for themselves and seek answers if they're struggling with health problems.
"I need people to know there are places they can go to catch things early," she told People. "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.
What are the symptoms of pancreatic cancer?
According to the Mayo Clinic, the symptoms and signs of pancreatic cancer often don't appear until the disease is advanced. Some of the symptoms may include:
- Abdominal pain that radiates to your back
- Loss of appetite or unintended weight loss
- Yellowing of your skin and the whites of your eyes (jaundice)
- Light-colored stools
- Dark-colored urine
- Itchy skin
- New diagnosis of diabetes or existing diabetes that's becoming more difficult to control
- Blood clots
- Fatigue
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