Nearly four months since revealing the news of her lung cancer diagnosis, comedian Kathy Griffin shared a happy update during her Tuesday appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live: "I'm cancer-free!" She also explained the medical process that has gotten her to this point-including the removal of part of her left lung.
Griffin was energetic as she began talking with Kimmel and quickly launched into why her trademark voice sounded different. "So, I have to explain my voice. You guys, listen to my voice," she started. "I had surgery, you're not going to believe this-so, I've never smoked but I got lung cancer. In August, I had half of my left lung removed, I'm not even kidding."
Surgery alone wouldn't necessarily affect her voice, but Griffin said the intubation process had temporarily affected her vocal cords. "Now I'm like Minnie Mouse meets Marilyn Monroe," she joked. (She then imitated Marilyn Monroe's famous version of the Happy Birthday song, in true Griffin fashion.)
"It will heal, but I'm sort of enjoying it. I'm a good two octaves higher, I think," she said. "It's higher than Mariah Carey, I know that."
At one point, Kimmel asked whether doctors had removed all of the cancer, which is when Griffin shared the good news that she's now cancer-free.
Griffin revealed she had lung cancer back in August, as SELF previously reported. "The doctors are very optimistic as it is stage I and contained to my left lung," Griffin, 61, wrote on Twitter at the time. "Hopefully no chemo or radiation after this and I should have normal function with my breathing. I should be up and running around as usual in a month or less." Her team later updated fans that surgery had gone well and Griffin was recovering.
Lung cancer is the third most common cancer in the U.S., but it kills a higher percentage of those diagnosed than any other cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Smoking is the number one risk factor for lung cancer. But about 10 to 20% of all lung cancers in the U.S. occur in people who have never smoked, as in Griffin's case, although some people in that situation might have been exposed to second-hand smoke or other carcinogens, like radon.
Lung cancer symptoms can include a new, persistent cough, coughing up any amount of blood, wheezing, hoarseness, recurring infections, and chest pain that worsens with coughing or laughing. But early stages of the illness often don't have symptoms, so cases are usually discovered when lung cancer is advanced enough to cause symptoms, or when a chest imaging study reveals something abnormal, as the Cleveland Clinic explains.
That seems to have been what happened to Griffin. "They found [the tumor] on another scan," she told Kimmel.
Treatment depends on the stage of cancer and the patient's health and preferences, according to the Mayo Clinic. It may include surgery, radiation treatment, chemotherapy, stereotactic body radiotherapy (an intense treatment where radiation is aimed at cancer from several angles), targeted drug therapy (which may be able to kill cancer cells by blocking their specific abnormalities), immunotherapy, and palliative care.
Griffin said her doctor had a sense of humor about her surgery. "So I go in, and here's the thing: When you're a comic, it's horrible when the doctors want to do their material on you," she explained. "He's describing how they take half your lung out, and he goes, 'It's kind of like a balloon. So we do it laparoscopically and we poke it.' And then he goes, 'And when we take it out, it kind of looks like a used condom.' And then he goes, 'You can use that.'"
While none of us can completely prevent lung cancer, there are several things you can do to lower your risk, according to the Mayo Clinic. First, never smoke, stop smoking if you currently do, and avoid secondhand smoke. Also ideal: Avoid known carcinogens at work, and take recommended precautions (like wearing a face mask) if your work recommends it to avoid exposure to certain chemicals or carcinogens. And, lastly, exercise regularly and eat a diet rich in fruits and vegetables.
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