Maria Menounos Says Tumor Doubled In Size Because Doctors Missed It During Initial Scans

The face of early previews at the movie theater, Maria Menounos, has had a difficult journey the past year or two. Back in April, she revealed to the world that she had stage two pancreatic cancer. She was first diagnosed in January.

This shocking announcement came just three months after she and her husband, Keven Undergaro, announced they were welcoming their first child together via surrogacy.

It’s been a rollercoaster ride for the 45-year-old star, and during a recent conversation on the ‘Not Skinny But Not Fat‘ podcast, Menounos revealed that the cancerous tumor could have been found back in November instead of January.

After suffering from pain and “severe diarrhea” for over a month, Maria went to multiple doctors and had all kinds of tests performed, including a full-body MRI scan in November. Doctors told her the tests were clear and they couldn’t find anything wrong.

But when the pain persisted, she went back in January, and that’s when doctors found the tumor.

When they found the tumor in the MRI, they said, ‘Can we go back and get the records and look at the November scan? I bet it was there,’ And it was. At that point it was two centimeters (0.79 inches) and by the time they had found it was almost four centimeters (1.5 inches), it had doubled in size in two months.

So how did they miss it the first time around? Well, she still doesn’t have an exact answer, but she has learned that different scans have the ability to see different things.

For this, an MRI was what’s really going to see it, for other things CAT scans are better, for others things an ultrasound’s better. It’s a really complicated process. So the radiologist went back and he was able to see it and do an addendum and say, ‘Yes, now with the knowledge it was there, we’re able to see it is there,’

Thankfully, she’s feeling much better now, but you can imagine how devastated she was when she was first diagnosed.

I was just f—cking gutted. I was just guttural crying and I was like I can’t believe God just blessed me with a baby, I’m gonna have a baby. We were two months along and I’m like I can’t believe I’m finally going to have a baby and I’m not going to get to meet her.

We’re sending her good vibes.