Four years after she was first diagnosed with ovarian cancer, Christiane Amanpour is optimistic about her latest bout with the disease.
After being off the air for the past month, the CNN anchor recently revealed the return of her cancer in a “fairly rare” form, encouraging other women to “listen to your body” and get checked out.
“I have it again, but it’s being very well-managed, and this is one of the whole things that people have to understand about some cancers,” she said on the Changing the Ovarian Cancer Story podcast.
“I decided when I got back in front of the camera after four weeks — which included the surgery and a couple of weeks of recuperation before I started chemotherapy — I decided to say something because I actually wanted to do a service,” added Amanpour. “Not just to my viewers, but also to those who might be in a similar situation. And I wanted to say what had happened to me. And I wanted to say listen to your body because part of the reason I got such quick care was because I listened to my body and went straight to the doctors.”
Accompanied by gynecology oncology consultant Dr. Angela George, Amanpour explained that her current cancer has been diagnosed as “stage 1/2,” meaning it’s in its first stage but had “adhered to my pelvis.”
“Angela told me what it was and why I was potentially lucky because there were actually pain symptoms,” explained Amanpour. “There’s often no symptoms so many women don’t know, so I feel that I was lucky.”
Amanpour’s health update comes after she was first diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2021, noting at the time that she had undergone successful surgery to remove it, followed by several months of chemotherapy.