ByBruce Y. Lee,
Senior Contributor.
You may not care if the early bird gets the worm, if you happen to not like worms. But early detection of cancer will get you something you should definitely want: much higher chances of successful treatment. That’s what happened to Emmy Award-winning TV host, author and podcaster Maria Menounos when the neuroendocrine cancer that she had in her pancreas was detected before it could spread any further. You could say that harrowing experience has pan-created motivation for Menounos to team up with Exact Sciences—the makers of a multi-cancer screening blood test called Cancerguard— to advocate for more cancer screening. I recently talked to Menounous, who’s been a host of Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood, and E! News and a reporter for The Today Show, about all this and more.
Part of the more is that Menounos has now seen cancer from different perspectives. In 2016, her mother, Litsa Menounos, was diagnosed with a malignant and very difficult to treat type of brain cancer known as glioblastoma multiforme, which originates from the glial cells of the brain. As she cared for her mother going through radiation and chemotherapy treatments, Menounos started experiencing brain-ish symptoms herself: intense ear pain, headaches, dizziness and slurred speech. Her doctor ordered an MRI of the brain, but Menounos, given her busy TV schedule including serving as the co-anchor of E! News, postponed getting it. But that led to even more EEEE! news—she began having blurry vision. That prompted her to clearly see the need to get the MRI, which she finally did at 10:30 pm on a Friday at UCLA Medical Center, because what else are you going to do on a Friday night.
