( CNN ) -- Robin Quivers , Howard Stern 's radio program sidekick , revealed Monday that she has battled cancer for the past year . The revelation came following a question from a caller about when Quivers would be returning to the studio . She has been working her gig from home since May of last year . Stern explained that right before her last day in the studio , Quivers had been attending a wedding in Pittsburgh and found she was unable to urinate . A quick trip to the emergency room , where her bladder was drained using a catheter , did n't fix the problem , Stern said . `` Do you want to fill the audience in on what happened since then so that they understand why you have n't been in the studio ? '' Stern asked Quivers during Monday 's show . Quivers replied , `` Sure . I 'm ready to talk about it now , I guess . Yeah , so I went to a doctor that afternoon and for about a week the story was that nobody really understood what was going on . They knew that there was a mass in my pelvis but nobody knew what it was , and eventually it was determined that I just had to have surgery and they 'd figure it out after going in . '' Quivers said she endured 12 hours of surgery after returning home to New York City . The mass turned out to be cancerous and involved uterine tissue migrating outside her uterus , she said . `` The tumor was about the size of a grapefruit , '' she said . `` There were two reasons that the operation was so long . It took eight hours to remove the tumor because it was so huge , it was lying on all the organs in my pelvis , and they literally had to scrape it off when they got to it . But also , they could n't even figure out how to operate 'cause it was so massive . '' Stern , who at times sounded emotional , said he was worried that his friend and cohort of many years would not survive . `` I was already making funeral arrangements , '' he said . `` Not to make light of this situation , but I was freaking out . It was just this f***ing crazy thing that came out of left field and it was going down real quick . '' But the story has what Stern called a `` miraculous '' ending . After undergoing treatment at Memorial Sloan Kettering -- which included chemotherapy and an ileostomy , a surgical procedure to allow intestinal waste to pass out of the body through an opening in the skin and into a pouch -- Quivers said doctors told her three and a half months ago that she is now cancer-free . `` ( The doctor ) just looks at everything and she goes , 'You 're cured . You 're done . You can just leave here . You know , the protocol is to scan you every three months and do all this stuff , but we do n't really have to , because you 're cured , ' '' Quivers said . Stern , who Quivers said supported her through her illness , said he was overjoyed with the outcome . `` I ca n't tell you when you see a friend , a life-long friend , going through this , what it 's like , '' Stern said . `` I 'll be honest . I thought she was a goner . You bet against anybody else except Robin . ''
Quivers kept her cancer diagnosis secret for over a year . She 's been running her Stern Foundation from home . She says doctors tell her she is now cancer - free .