Maria Menounos shared her story of a private battle with stage 2 pancreatic cancer for the first time in a People interview published Wednesday, saying that early detection saved her life. “I had that moment where I thought I was a goner—but I’m OK because I caught this early enough,” the former E! News anchor said. Her January diagnosis came after she learned she had type 1 diabetes, which runs in her family, she said. Despite medication and a strict diet, her symptoms worsened until she was experiencing “excruciating abdominal pain coupled with diarrhea” that at one point felt “like someone was tearing my insides out. A full-body MRI soon revealed a 3.9-centimeter mass that turned out to be a tumor. “All I could think was that I [had] a baby coming,” Menounos added, referencing the child she and husband Keven Undergaro are expecting to be born via surrogate later this year. In February, she underwent surgery to remove not just the tumor, but also part of her pancreas, her spleen, a large fibroid, and 17 lymph nodes. “I’m so grateful and so lucky,” she said. “God granted me a miracle.”
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