RADIO COHOST Robin Quivers - Fighting Cancer for 11 Years

THE ON-AIR PERSONALITY AND HOWARD STERN SHOW STAR SHARES HOW SHE'S LEARNING TO LIVE WITH ENDOMETRIAL CANCER AND FINDING STRENGTH IN FRIENDS

- JOANNE FOWLER

Robin Quivers remembers feeling unusually tired in the days and weeks leading up to a pal's weekend nuptials in Pittsburgh in May 2012.  Then the longtime radio cohost of The Howard Stern Show started having trouble urinating the night before the wedding. "It was painful, it was scary, it was bizarre," says Quivers. She went to the emergency room, where doctors inserted a catheter, and X-rays revealed a grapefruit-size mass lodged in her pelvic area. She recalls ER staff telling her, "As soon as you get home, see a doctor."

Four days later, back in Manhattan, Quivers was taken into surgery after a series of CT scans, MRIs and biopsies were inconclusive. "Nobody was able to diagnose it," says Quivers, 71, who saw both a gynecologist and a gastroenterologist. "They told me, 'We really don't know what this is. We can't identify it without going in and getting it.""

Surgeons discovered the mass had been resting on "every organ" in her pelvic area, says Quivers, necessitating a complete hysterectomy. "Then it was hours of meticulously scraping off layers of tissue and not destroying [whatever] organ it had been touching."

She spent weeks waiting for test results—and reviews from a new team of doctors—before being diagnosed with a rare form of stage 3C endometrial cancer. Following her recovery from surgery, she began a grueling 15-month regimen of radiation and chemotherapy. She credits her circle of close friends with helping her find the best medical care and getting her through the toughest times—in particular, her longtime friendship with Stern, 69. “Howard was there every day,” she says, choking up at the memory. “He’s been with me lockstep.”