Maria Menounos reveals she had successful surgery for pancreatic cancer

Maria Menounos revealed in a new interview that she had surgery in February to remove a cancerous tumor from her pancreas. Credit: Getty Images / Rodin Eckenroth
TV personality and "Heal Squad" podcast host Maria Menounos, who with her husband Keven Undergaro is expecting a baby girl via surrogate this summer, has revealed that she has had successful surgery for pancreatic cancer.
"This whole year has been trauma, stress, crisis," Menounos, 44, says in the new issue of People magazine. "There was a minute when we were planning something, and then it became too much. I thought, 'I just need to heal.' "
Menounos, who most recently hosted the reunion episodes of "The Challenge: Ride or Dies," had begun experiencing severe leg cramps in June. Learning from doctors she had hereditary Type 1 diabetes, she began a regimen of insulin, diet and monitoring of her glucose level.
"I was crushing it," Menounos said of her continuing treatment. "I felt so good. What else could go wrong?" But in November, she was hospitalized with "excruciating abdominal pain" and intestinal distress.
A CT scan found no abnormalities, but her pains continued "like someone was tearing my insides out."
A whole-body MRI showed a 3.9 cm mass on her pancreas. A subsequent biopsy confirmed a cancerous stage 2 pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor. "I'm like 'How in the ... world can I have a brain tumor and pancreatic cancer?' Menounos told the magazine, referring to her 2017 surgery to remove a benign brain tumor. "All I could think was that I have a baby coming."
Fortunately, the pancreatic cancer was caught early. On Feb. 16 she underwent surgery, with doctors removing the tumor, part of her pancreas, her spleen, a large fibroid and 17 lymph nodes. Her recovery, she said, "was super painful," adding "I couldn't move or lift myself up." Her prognosis is good, with no chemotherapy or additional treatment needed, though she will need annual scans for five years.
"I'm so grateful and so lucky," Menounos said. "God granted me a miracle. "I'm going to appreciate having her in my life so much more than I would have before this journey."
On Instagram Wednesday she said in part, "I still haven't come to grips with it all, including the fact that so very few even survive pancreatic cancer. I have SO much information and SO many breakthroughs that I think/hope can save others. I do plan to share everything on my podcast and on as many platforms as I can. For now I'll say how grateful I am to be able alive and well and that I WILL get to hold my baby!"
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