How Olympic Gymnastics Star Shannon Miller, 46, Beat Ovarian Cancer After Having Baseball-Sized Cyst Removed: “Life Is Crazy”

"Life is a crazy journey and I'm so thankful for each day. Sending love and hope to all those fighting the good fight.  #ovariancancer #cancer" Miller said in a caption on Facebook.

Within Miller's post, she shares a collection of adorable photos ranging from her Olympic performances to her donning a shaved head during chemotherapy. The photo also showcases the proud Olympian all smiles with her beautiful family and young son.

"You are an inspiration to all. Enjoy this great day," Todd Bell commented on Facebook joining in on the celebration.

During Miller's run as an Olympic gymnast during the 1990s, she won seven Olympic medals. She also broke the record for winning the most Olympic medals of any U.S. athlete in any sport during the 1992 Olympics.

In 1996, she led a team of talented gymnasts to the first-ever U.S. Women's Team Gold and was the first American ever to win gold for the balance beam.

WATCH: Ovarian Cancer Warning Signs Can be Subtle

Years later, she was diagnosed with germ cell ovarian cancer in 2011 after her doctor removed a baseball-sized cyst on her left ovary.

The term ovarian cancer refers to several different tumors that grow in the ovary. Many ovarian cancers begin in the fallopian tubes. A few cancerous cells first grow on the fallopian tubes and then, as the fallopian tubes brush over the ovary, these cells stick to the ovaries and eventually grow to form a tumor.

When it comes to germ cell tumors, they develop in the cells that produce the eggs ad are more likely to affect a single ovary, rather than both ovaries. The good news is that most women with these types of ovarian cancers can be cured.

Before her diagnosis, Miller told MIH Medline Plus Magazine from the National Library of Medicine,  she experienced stomach pain, bloating, and weight loss. A feeling of bloating or fullness and pain in the pelvis or abdomen are both signs of ovarian cancer.

MORE: Ovarian Cancer Symptoms & Diagnosis

After surgery, she underwent aggressive chemotherapy, according to Sports Illustrated.

In a previous interview with SurvivorNet, Miller said the nausea was one of the hardest parts of her journey. She said she often felt weak.

“Here I had swung around uneven bars for more than a decade and now I couldn't open a bottle of water,” Miller said, comparing to the gravity she had defied as a gymnast.

To get through her treatment, she set small goals for herself and took it all one day at a time.

"My goal on many days was to get up, get dressed, and walk twice around the dining room table. And if I did that I could check the box and that was a good day. I didn't always get there, but that was the goal,” she said.

While she is now cancer free, she said she still undergoes regular testing to make sure the cancer hasn’t returned.

"I still get tested twice a year and there's still tough days. For the most part, I'm doing well and feel fantastic and have no complaints. But testing days can bring anxiety. Every time you get a stomachache, you have to wonder: Did it come back? And that can get really difficult," Miller explained to Sports Illustrated.

Miller isn’t alone in what’s known as “scan-xiety,” or the anxiety that people living with cancer (or survivors) sometimes feel when thinking about their next scans.

Dr. Samantha Boardman, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medicine, recognizes how stressful this can be for people. She previously told SurvivorNet that people getting scans should find activities that bring them joy and peace (like gardening or doing crafts) to focus their minds away from the scans.

Since overcoming ovarian cancer, Miller has used her platform to spread awareness about the disease. She began by sharing her own story hoping it would make an impact on other women.

"I came from a shy background. I would hardly speak during my [gymnastics] training. But I realized, you know what, I'll go around and talk about my ovaries all day long if it really does make even one person think, 'yep, I'm going to go to the doctor. I'm going to focus on my health.' Then it is all worth it," Shannon told SurvivorNet.

And it seemed to work. She recounted for us a story that she still has a hard time telling without shedding tears.

"[I got] a letter from a lady from Texas," Miller said. "A mom from Texas with three kids … and she shared that she always got her kids to their doctors appointments but she couldn't remember the last time she went.”

"And, I'll never forget this, she said 'but if it can happen to you it can happen to me and I'm going to make my appointment.’"

Advancements in Ovarian Cancer Treatment

Ovarian cancer has been called the "cancer that whispers" because women often don't experience symptoms until their cancer has already reached its late stages, making treatment more difficult.

But promising advancements have been offering new hope to patients that typically haven’t had many options.

MORE: Treating Recurrent Ovarian Cancer

Chemotherapy can be one of the most effective tools for fighting ovarian cancer. However, advanced ovarian cancer has a tendency to come back. And the cancer can become resistant to the chemo drugs designed to target and kill them.

Cancer that comes back within six months of treatment with a platinum-based chemotherapy drug is called platinum-resistant. If the cancer returns after six months following platinum-based chemotherapy is finished, it is called platinum-sensitive.

Women with these stubborn tumors were left with not very many options for their advanced cancer.

However, in one of the first major advancements in ovarian cancer treatment in a decade, a new drug called Elahere (molecular name mirvetuximab soravtansine) was given accelerated approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for certain patients with platinum-resistant disease that had received one to three previous treatments.

Dr. Anna Berkenblit, Chief Medical Officer at ImmunoGen, explained to SurvivorNet what Elahere, an antibody-drug conjugate, did for patients in a pivotal trial called MIRASOL.

"We have longer progression-free survival, which means the patients are living longer without their cancer progressing. And most importantly, we have demonstrated that patients are living longer," she said.

WATCH: Investigating New Ovarian Cancer Treatments

Elahere targets the folate receptor alpha (FRα) protein, which is located on the surface of the tumor cell. And that’s a critical point, as it offers effective treatment for a large population of women with advanced ovarian cancer.

"It is approved now for patients with high folate receptor alpha level expression, and that’s about 35% to 40% of all ovarian cancer patients," Berkenblit explained.

The drug is expected to be given full approval in the U.S. after the promising new data from MIRASOL was released this year.

"Available therapies for these (platinum-resistant) patients are typically single-agent chemotherapies. And now we’ve shown that Elahere is better than the available therapies," Dr. Berkenblit said.

The MIRASOL trial looked at how Elahere performed compared to giving chemotherapy alone in patients with folate receptor alpha (FRα)-positive platinum-resistant ovarian cancer.

In the trial, more than one-third of patients (36%) receiving Elahere (who had previously been treated with the targeted therapy bevacizumab) experienced improved progression-free survival (how long a patient goes without their disease worsening) and more than one-fourth (26%) experienced improved overall survival (how long the patient lives).

In another, smaller group of patients who had not previously been treated with bevacizumab, progression-free survival was 34% better, and overall survival was 49% better than when patients received standard chemotherapy.

Questions for Your Doctor

If you have been diagnosed with ovarian cancer and are interested in learning if these new treatments are available to you, ask your doctor a few questions.

• What stage is my ovarian cancer in and what type do I have?
• Will genetic testing help determine what treatment may be best for me?
• Are there other tests, like for the folate receptor alpha protein, that I can take?
• What are my treatment options based on my results?
• What side effects should I expect from the available treatments?
• If my ovarian cancer is platinum-resistant, what treatment options can I explore?
• Will insurance cover these new cancer drugs?

Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.

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