Catching Pancreatic Cancer Early
- TV host Maria Menounos, 44, revealed this week that she had a recent battle with stage 2 pancreatic cancer, following her 2017 brain tumor scare, her mom’s passing from brain cancer and a 10-year fertility journey.
- Menounos is lucky to have caught her cancer early, as it is known as the “silent” disease.
- Pancreatic cancer is typically not found until is has progressed and spread because people don’t usually experience early symptoms and there is no recommended screening routines.
- The mom-to-be is urging others to get checked for pancreatic cancer and “catch things early.”
- Luckily, because Menounos’ cancer was discovered somewhat early, she was able to get the tumor, her spleen, part of her pancreas, 17 lymph nodes and a large fibroid removed via surgery.
The 44-year-old journalist, actress, and podcast host was diagnosed with stage 2 pancreatic cancer in January and is urging others to “catch things early” when they can.
“There was a minute when we were planning something, and then it became too much,” she explained. “I thought, ‘I just need to heal.'”
Prior to getting “slapped in the face” with her pancreatic cancer diagnosis, Menounos insisted she was “feeling so good.”
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Menounos started suffering from major leg cramps last June, a symptom which led her to the hospital, where she discovered she had type 1 diabetes (her dad and younger brother also have diabetes).
Following her diabetes diagnosis, she was prescribed insulin, changed her diet, and felt “so good” by October.
In November 2022, she returned to the hospital “with excruciating abdominal pain” and “diarrhea.” Doctors told her everything was “fine” with her body.
However, weeks later, she began feeling as if “someone was tearing my insides out.”
A whole-body MRI and a biopsy revealed she had a stage 2 pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor, which, according to the American Cancer Society, is a type of cancer that forms in the pancreas. The tumors are called pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) or islet cell tumors.
Recalling the shock she felt while receiving her diagnosis, Menounos said she had her husband and father by her side amid this cancer fight.
“I’m like ‘How in the freaking world can I have a brain tumor and pancreatic cancer?’ All I could think was that I have a baby coming,” Menounos said.
Luckily, because Menounos’ cancer was discovered somewhat early, she was able to get the tumor, her spleen, part of her pancreas, 17 lymph nodes and a large fibroid removed via surgery on Feb. 16 of this year.
Additionally, her doctor and surgeon said she will not need to undergo chemotherapy or other forms of treatment.
Menounos, who needs to get yearly scans for the next five years, is now incredibly “grateful” for being able to overcome cancer, adding, “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.”
Her cancer reveal came less than 24 hours after the “Heal Squad” podcast shared a wholehearted photo of her and her mom, who passed away from stage 4 glioblastoma (a type of brain cancer) in May 2021.
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Expressing how shocked she is having had two years go by since her tragic loss, Menouonos wrote to her mom, “I miss you so much. Thank you for all you did for me. For believing in me. For sacrificing for me. For driving me to every modeling job, photo shoot or whatever we were running to. For standing up to Dad , the strict Greek father, when he said no to all of it. For teaching me how to cook.”
“How to be selfless and brave. For showing me how to face a brain tumor and smile all the way through. I thought the health journeys ended there but from the other side you have helped me in through more,” she continued.
After professing how much she loves and misses her mom, and how grateful she feels to have had her in her life for the time she did, she added, “I hope I can be 10% of what you were for my daughter.”
Why Is Early Detection of Pancreatic Cancer So Important?
Maria Menounos’ announcement about her pancreatic cancer comes just about a week after TV personality Jerry Springer died of the same disease. His illness was “sudden” and he wasn’t sick for very long.
Pancreatic cancer is known as the “silent” disease. Symptoms of the disease rarely show up until it has advanced and metastasized (spread) to other parts of the body.
Plus, the Cleveland Clinic explains that early-stage pancreatic cancer tumors typically don't appear on imaging scans. And there are no recommended screening routines for this type of cancer.
When pancreatic cancer is diagnosed in later stages, which it most often is, it becomes more difficult to treat.
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"Because the pancreas is inside the abdomen, it often doesn't have symptoms that would tell you that something is wrong with your pancreas," Dr. Anirban Maitra, co-leader of Pancreatic Cancer Moon Shot at MD Anderson Cancer Center, previously told SurvivorNet.
Pancreatic Cancer: The Importance of Early Detection
“By the time individuals walk into the clinic with symptoms like jaundice, weight loss, back pain, or diabetes, it's often very late in the stage of the disease,” he explained.
So, perhaps Maria Menounos was, indeed, lucky to have caught her cancer at stage 2.
According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 64,050 people (33,130 men and 30,920 women) will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2023. Unfortunately, about 50,550 people (26,620 men and 23,930 women) are estimated to die of the disease this year.
Dr. Maitra pointed out that a large issue lies in screening methods.
"It is not prudent to be screening everyone," he said, citing a high rate of false-positives.
"So instead, our efforts are now focused on screening only those subsets of individuals who are at higher risk for pancreatic cancer."
Dr. Matira pointed out that those at higher risk would be anyone who has two or more family members who had pancreatic cancer, those with an abnormality in germline DNA, and those with cysts in their pancreas.
Detecting pancreatic cancer early on allows for more treatment options, as in Menounos’ case, where surgery was an option. Dr. Maitra noted that only approximately 20% of people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer are eligible for surgery.
Despite the great advances in advanced pancreatic cancer treatment, early detection remains crucial.
If you're at high risk, and you suspect something might be wrong, there are tests that can be performed to see whether you might have pancreatic cancer.
An endoscopic ultrasound or an MRI scan are two common ways of doing this, and doctors have been known to find early and treatable pancreatic cancers using both of these tests.
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Studies have been done on a blood test for pancreatic cancer, and although this looks very promising, more tests are needed. And currently, an ultrasound and MRI are still the best widely available tests that are offered.
Meanwhile, one of the main reasons pancreatic cancer is one of the most difficult cancers to treat is because of the stroma a barrier around cancer cells that prevents medications, such as chemotherapy and radiation, from targeting and killing these cells.
If these cells continue to grow, then the disease will continue to progress.
"Think of pancreatic cancer as an oatmeal raisin cookie and the raisins are actually the cancer cells, and the cookie part is actually all the stroma around it," Dr. Allyson Ocean, a medical oncologist at Weill Cornell Medical Center, previously told SurvivorNet.
Dr. Allyson Ocean On Why Pancreatic Cancer Is So Hard To Treat
“And imagine having to navigate through all that stroma for a treatment to be able to get into a cell to kill it. So that's why the treatments just really aren't good enough to penetrate the cancer. But we're improving, we're getting better treatments,” Ocean explained.
Pancreatic Cancer Symptoms and Risk Factors
Dr. Syed Ahmad, of the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, calls pancreatic cancer “a silent cancer, and that’s why it’s a bad cancer,” he said in a recent interview with WLWT-TV,
“Unfortunately, pancreas cancer does not get diagnosed until later stages because it remains asymptomatic until it gets to the later stages,” he added.
If people do experience symptoms, they may include unintentional weight loss, stomach pain, and jaundice, or yellowing of the skin. People may also experience fatigue, loss of appetite, or light-colored stool.
Pancreatic cancer risk factors include things you can change and others you're born with. The American Cancer Society says the most common risk factors are:
- Age: A significant number of pancreatic cancer patients are older than 45)
- Gender: Men are more likely to get diagnosed with pancreatic cancer
- Race: African Americans are more likely to develop the disease
- Family History
- Inherited genetic syndromes
- Tobacco use
- Obesity
- Diabetes
- Chronic pancreatitis
- Exposure to certain chemicals often used in dry cleaning and metal industries
Contributing: SurvivorNet Staff
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