(NOTE LANGUAGE) Kathy Griffin revealed Monday that she has stage 1 lung cancer.
The 60-year-old comedian and actress shared a tweet announcing her diagnosis and said she will undergo surgery. She did not reveal when she received her diagnosis.
“I’ve got to tell you guys something. I have cancer,” Griffin wrote. “I’m about to go into surgery to have half of my left lung removed.”
Griffin continued: “Yes, I have lung cancer even though I’ve never smoked!”
She said her doctors are “very optimistic” because she said her cancer is “stage one and contained to my left lung.”
“Hopefully no chemo or radiation after this and I should have normal function with my breathing,” she wrote. “I should be up and running around as usual in a month or less.”
“It’s been a helluva 4 years, trying to get back to work, making you guys laugh and entertaining you, but I’m gonna be just fine,” she continued.
Griffin also told her followers she is fully vaccinated against COVID-19. “The consequences for being unvaccinated would have been even more serious,” she said. “Please stay up to date on your medical check ups. It’ll save your life.”
Lung cancer is the third most common cancer in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC estimates that “about 10% to 20% of lung cancers, or 20,000 to 40,000 lung cancers each year, happen in people who never smoked or smoked fewer than 100 cigarettes in their lifetime.”
Griffin sat down with ABC News’ Juju Chang to discuss her reaction to her diagnosis, admitting she was “in shock.”
“Once a day, I’ll just turn to nobody next to me and go, ‘Can you believe this s***? Is this a b**** or what?” she said.
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) August 2, 2021
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