Global Courant 2023-05-04 22:23:15
Maria Menounos revealed that she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in January 2023 – and that she could only catch it early because she advocated for herself.
The 44-year-old TV personality, currently is expecting her first child via surrogate with husband Keven Undergaro, first shared her diagnosis with People magazine on May 3 and joined TODAY on May 4 to detail her journey with the condition.
Menounos told co-anchor Hoda Kotb that she was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in June 2022, which runs in her family. A few months later, in the fall, she recalls experiencing “excruciating pain” while on a plane. “I didn’t think I’d make it on the flight,” she said. But because she was eating a farro salad at the time, she brushed it off as a sign of gluten intolerance, she recalled.
In November, she said she had “again excruciating abdominal pain” coupled with “loose stools” or diarrhea, which lasted about a month.
To get to the bottom of her symptoms, Menounos ran several tests, including a CT scan and stool and blood tests, all of which had “inconspicuous” results, she said. But the pain persisted, and at times she felt like “someone was ripping my guts out,” she told People.
“Every time I complained about it after that (my doctors told me), ‘Well, we just scanned and everything was fine,’ but I kept[in]my upper left quadrant knocking this,” Menounos told Hoda, adding that she knew “something was wrong”.
So the former “E! News” host decided to get a full-body MRI, which revealed she had a 1.5-inch mass on her pancreas.
“The masses remained in every image,” Menounos said. “(The radiologist) says, ‘You need to go to the hospital right away.’ And he’s white as a ghost and he’s shaking. My eyes started to get good, and I just look at him and think, ‘So I’m gone.'”
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She underwent a second MRI, which also confirmed she had a mass. But when she went for a biopsy, the doctor said he was skeptical it was anything to worry about, telling her it was probably pancreatitis or inflammation of the pancreas.
“When I came out, he said, ‘Oh, this is definitely something,'” Menounos continued. “I remember waking up the next morning, and I hadn’t really cried, but I just started crying because I thought, ‘How can God finally bless me with a baby after 10 years?’ to meet her.'”
A biopsy later confirmed it to be a stage 2 pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor, which is rare and less deadly than the more common pancreatic cancer diagnosis of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Because she was able to catch it early and the type of tumor she had was less aggressive than other pancreatic cancers, she had a good prognosis.
In February, Menounos underwent surgery to remove the tumor, as well as the tail of her pancreas, her entire spleen, 17 lymph nodes and a uterine fibroid “the size of a baby,” she told Hoda.
Menounous told People that the recovery has been “super painful,” but she won’t need any additional treatment for the next five years, just annual scans.
First symptoms of pancreatic cancer
Pancreatic cancer has the lowest five-year survival rate of any major cancer at 12% Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. But Menounos’ type of pancreatic tumor has a better prognosis on average, the American Cancer Society. The overall five-year survival rate is 53%, according to the ACS.
Pancreatic cancer usually causes no symptoms and therefore usually does is not detected until it has spread outside the pancreas, making it more difficult to treat. Pancreatic tumors also often do not show up in most medical imaging, as was the case with Menounos. And because the pancreas is so deep in the abdomen, patients cannot feel it, as is the case with breast cancer, for example.
In addition, the early symptoms of pancreatic cancer can be vague and attributed to other conditions. That’s why experts in its treatment recommend knowing the early signs and advocating for yourself if you experience any of these symptoms, especially for more than a few weeks.
With Menounos’ tumor type, symptoms vary, but usually include “acid reflux, burning abdominal pain … other gastrointestinal symptoms,” a more general body ache or jaundice, according to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network.
Many pancreatic cancer patients say their first symptoms were stomach or back pain, which may come and go at first, or get worse after meals or when lying down, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Menounos said she would have “bouts of severe abdominal pain, and then it would go away. … I kept telling people this doesn’t feel right.”
Other common symptoms of early pancreatic cancer, according to dr. Suneel Kamath, pancreatic oncologist at Cleveland Clinic, include: fatigue; sudden, rapid weight loss; and pain in the center of the stomach below the sternum. But not everyone gets this.
“A lot of times what happens is people either think it’s just acid reflux, that they ate something funny or they attribute it to something else for a while,” Kamath previously told TODAY.com. “They’ll see their doctor, and many of them will start on acid reflux medications or other things that target general stomach problems.”
“That’s why I’m emphasizing that anything that goes on for five, six weeks straight won’t be your reflux, indigestion, constipation related stuff,” he continued, adding that because pancreatic cancer is still beautiful. rare, most doctors won’t assume these symptoms could be a sign of it.
Alex Trebek, who died of pancreatic cancer in 2020 after being diagnosed less than two years earlier, shared in a 2019 PSA that one of his first symptoms was “persistent abdominal pain.” Patrick Swayzewho died in 2009 had jaundice as one of his first symptoms of pancreatic cancer, which according to the ACS.
“He came up to me and he said, ‘Do my eyes look yellow?'” his widow, Lisa Niemi Swayze, recently told TODAY.com. “He had digestive problems, pain that wouldn’t go away. But it was mostly the yellow eyes that sent us to the doctor. He said, “Oh, we’re going next week.” But I thought, ‘Yellow eyes just don’t sound normal. We have to go tomorrow.’”
Menounos said one of her goals of sharing her story is “to sound the alarm to everyone that you should be the CEO of your health. … You know your body. You know what’s going on. I’m grateful that I’m in this position and I know that God made all of this happen so that I can help other people.”
“I’m so lucky to be able to hold my baby in the summer,” she added. “That’s the best blessing of all.
CLARIFICATION (May 4, 2023; 8:55 AM ET): This story has been updated to clarify that the type of tumor Menounos had, a pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor, differs from the more common diagnosis of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.
This article was originally published on TODAY. com
