CNN star Christiane Amanpour‘s ovarian cancer has returned.
The CNN chief international anchor first opened up about being diagnosed with ovarian in 2021 after she was off-air for several weeks. In an update during a Thursday, October 23, appearance on the “Changing the Ovarian Cancer Story” podcast, Amanpour, 67, said the cancer had returned.
“I have it again, but it’s being very well managed,” the journalist said. “This is one of the whole things that people have to understand about some cancers.”
“I had all the relevant organs removed, but it came back a couple of times in a lymph node,” Amanpour said, noting that she’s currently undergoing immunotherapy.
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“It’s the opposite of grueling,” Amanpour said of her treatment. “I have no side effects. I take pills every day. Now, every six weeks, I go into the hospital and have an infusion of the other drug that goes with my particular cocktail of immunotherapy.”
Amanpour’s doctor, Dr. Angela George, an oncologist at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, said that the famed journalist’s type of ovarian cancer is particularly rare. “In our population, it makes up less than 10% of ovarian cancer cases,” George said. “It’s one where we do see a larger mass on the ovary.”
The CNN presenter was first diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2021.
“I’ve had successful major surgery to remove it, and I am now going through several months of chemotherapy for the very best possible long-term prognosis, and I am confident,” she said on her CNN program in June 2021, per Deadline.
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“I am telling you this in the interest of transparency, but really as a shout-out to most early diagnosis,” she added, urging other women to educate themselves on ovarian cancer and undergo regular testing “to ensure that your legitimate medical concerns are not dismissed or diminished.”
In her interview on Thursday, Amanpour opened up about the treatment she underwent at the time, which included having several organs removed.
“The surgery went exceptionally well,” she said. “They took out pretty much everything. And I also asked them to take out my appendix. I did that in memory of a friend of mine who had appendix cancer, which is apparently is a one in a million [diagnosis], but she ended up unfortunately dying. … Empty cavity. No cervix. No more pap smears.”
Amanpour added, “I’m pretty strong and good constitution, do a lot of exercise, eat well, so I left hospital fairly quickly. I can’t remember exactly, but several weeks afterwards, they started me on the chemo regime, which I believe was 16 weeks. That involved going into the hospital and having the intravenous [treatment].”
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Amanpour also touched on the support she received from her family and friends during her treatment.
“[They were] priceless,” she said. “There’s no way I could have got through it without [them]. I cannot tell you … I never actually asked for help before and when I did, I got it from my family, from my friends, from my colleagues. It was touching, but it was really helpful, really amazing. … The community is actually vital. I’m so very lucky that I had that.”
