Maria Menounos has had a rough decade. Honestly, saying it's been "rough" is a bit of an understatement. Most people remember her as the bubbly E! News host, but behind the scenes, she’s survived a health gauntlet that would break most people.
The story of the maria menounos brain tumor is one of those surreal "glitch in the matrix" moments. Back in 2017, Maria was actually caring for her mother, Litsa, who was battling Stage 4 glioblastoma. While she was literally helping her mom navigate the most aggressive form of brain cancer, Maria started noticing her own weird symptoms. Slurred speech. Trouble reading the teleprompter. Lightheadedness that wouldn't go away.
She went for an MRI. The result? A golf-ball-sized tumor.
The Diagnosis: A Benign "Gift"?
In April 2017, doctors confirmed she had a meningioma. For anyone not up on medical jargon, a meningioma is a tumor that arises from the membranes surrounding the brain. The good news? It was benign. The bad news? It was still a mass the size of a golf ball pressing against her facial nerves.
It’s kinda wild to think about, but she actually laughed when the doctor told her. It felt so bizarre and impossible that she and her mother were fighting brain tumors at the exact same time. She underwent a seven-hour surgery on June 8, 2017—which happened to be her 39th birthday. Dr. Keith L. Black, the same neurosurgeon treating her mother, managed to remove about 99.9% of the mass.
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She has famously called that maria menounos brain tumor a "gift." It sounds crazy, right? But she’s explained that she was a total workaholic, running herself into the ground. The tumor forced her to quit E! News and rethink her entire existence.
Not Just One Battle: The Pancreatic Pivot
A lot of people get the timeline confused or assume the brain tumor was her only scare. Fast forward to early 2023, and she got hit again. This time, it wasn't a benign growth.
She started feeling "excruciating" abdominal pain and insane bloating. We’re talking "looked like I swallowed a basketball" levels of bloating. She went to the doctor, got a CT scan, and was told everything was fine. But she knew it wasn't.
Basically, her instincts saved her life.
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She pushed for a full-body MRI (specifically a Prenuvo scan), which revealed a 3.9 cm mass on her pancreas. It turned out to be a Stage 2 pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor. This is a rare form of cancer, much different (and often more treatable) than the typical pancreatic adenocarcinoma that people usually fear.
The Massive 2023 Surgery
In February 2023, she went under the knife again. This wasn't just a simple "snip and tuck." Surgeons removed:
- The tumor
- The tail of her pancreas
- Her entire spleen
- A large uterine fibroid
- 17 lymph nodes
Imagine dealing with all that while expecting your first child via surrogate. Her daughter, Athena, was born just months later in May. It’s a lot for one human to process.
Why We Are Still Talking About It
The reason the maria menounos brain tumor and her subsequent cancer journey still trend today is because of how she uses her platform. She’s become the "CEO of her own health," and she wants everyone else to do the same.
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There's a lot of misinformation out there about "silent" symptoms. Maria’s story proves that sometimes symptoms aren't silent; they’re just ignored by the medical system. She had scans that missed the pancreatic mass because they weren't the right kind of scans.
She’s now a major advocate for early detection and outside screenings. Honestly, she’s basically a walking medical encyclopedia at this point. She’s even partnered with companies like Exact Sciences to promote "Cancerguard," a blood test for early detection.
What You Should Do Next
If you've been feeling "off" and your doctor is brushing you off, take a page from the Maria Menounos playbook.
- Be the CEO of your body. If a symptom persists, you must persist.
- Seek a second opinion. A "clear" CT scan doesn't always mean you're in the clear if the pain is still there.
- Look into full-body MRIs. While they can be pricey, they are becoming the gold standard for finding things that traditional tests miss.
- Listen to your gut. Literally. Bloating, changes in digestion, or weird "zaps" in your head are your body’s way of sounding the alarm.
The maria menounos brain tumor was just the first chapter in a long saga of resilience. She’s currently cancer-free and focused on being a mom, but she’s still very much in the "Olympic training" mode of self-care, using red light therapy, saunas, and grounding to stay healthy.
Her journey is a reminder that being "fine" isn't the same as being healthy. Keep pushing for answers until you actually feel like yourself again.