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Maria Menounos knew the ache she was once feeling wasn’t standard, but she needed to push for an extra full-body MRI to in the end get recognized with pancreatic most cancers.
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Talking to PEOPLE, the E! Information alum unfolded about her terrifying ordeal of combating most cancers whilst anticipating her first kid by the use of surrogacy. Her adventure started final fall, when she was once recognized with Sort 1 diabetes, which runs in her circle of relatives, and later started experiencing “excruciating stomach ache coupled with diarrhea.”
Menounos, 44, went to the physician to run some checks. The whole thing got here again transparent, however the mom-to-be knew one thing wasn’t proper. “I saved having [abdominal] pains,” she defined, including that the ache was once so serious, it felt like “anyone was once tearing my insides out.”
A chum instructed that Menounos glance right into a full-body MRI. She pursued the extra check according to this informal advice, and lo and behold, the scan published a cancerous tumor on her pancreas.
Her most cancers was once detected at Degree 2, so Menounos’s docs really useful that she have surgical treatment to take away the tumor from her pancreas. She underwent the process — which additionally incorporated the elimination of her spleen, a big fibroid, and 17 lymph nodes — in February. Fortunately, she is now recuperating and looking forward to the delivery of her child woman along with her husband, Keven Undergaro.
“I’m so thankful and so fortunate,” she mentioned. “God granted me a miracle. I’m going to understand having her in my existence so a lot more than I might have ahead of this adventure.”
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What’s pancreatic most cancers?
Symbol Credit score: Getty Pictures/Science Picture Libra Because the title suggests, pancreatic most cancers begins within the pancreas, a 6-inch organ that sits at the back of the tummy and merchandise hormones that keep an eye on blood-sugar ranges.
There are two primary sorts of pancreatic most cancers: exocrine tumors, which account for 90 p.c of circumstances, and neuroendocrine tumors, that are a lot rarer. (Menounos was once recognized with the latter.) Not unusual signs come with jaundice, darkened urine, higher stomach ache, heart again ache, bloating, and fatigue.
Consistent with the American Most cancers Society, pancreatic most cancers accounts for approximately 3 p.c of all cancers in america however 7 p.c of all deaths from most cancers. It additionally has the lowest five-year survival charge of all cancers.
That is largely as a result of sufferers normally aren’t recognized till the illness has stepped forward. Early-stage tumors continuously don’t display up on CT scans, as was once the case for Menounos.
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Getting recognized early would possibly have stored Maria Menousnos’s existence.
Symbol Credit score: Getty Pictures Menounos is fortunate to had been recognized at an early degree, when her most cancers was once nonetheless very treatable. That’s why she has selected to proportion her tale and inspire people experiencing identical signs to suggest for themselves.
“Whilst you’re met with a possible dying sentence, the whole thing adjustments,” Menounos advised PEOPLE. “I would like other folks to grasp there are puts they may be able to pass to catch issues early. You’ll be able to’t let worry get in the way in which.”
“I had that second the place I assumed I used to be a goner — however I’m OK as a result of I stuck this early sufficient,” she added.
Her most cancers analysis additionally comes only a few years after she needed to have a big however benign mind mass got rid of.
“How within the freaking global can I’ve a mind tumor and pancreatic most cancers?” the podcast host joked.
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