Kathy Griffin: US comedian has surgery after lung cancer diagnosis
US comedian and actress Kathy Griffin is having surgery after being diagnosed with lung cancer.
The 60-year-old wrote on social media that she was “about to go into surgery to have half of my left lung removed”.
She said doctors were “very optimistic” and that cancer had not spread beyond her left lung.
“I should be up and running around as usual in a month or less,” said the star, known for her stand-up routines and TV shows like Suddenly Susan.
“The doctors are very optimistic as it is stage one and contained to my left lung,” the Grammy and Emmy award winner told her followers.
“Hopefully no chemo or radiation after this and I should have a normal function with my breathing.”
Stage one is one of the earliest stages of cancer diagnosis and means a tumor is relatively small and has not spread or has not spread far.
She said she had contracted the disease despite never having smoked. Between 10% and 20% of lung cancer cases occur in people who have not smoked, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
‘All I wanna do is life’
In 2017, Griffin hit the headlines when she was criticized for posing with a fake decapitated head of then-US President Donald Trump.
She was fired as host of CNN’s New Year’s Eve broadcast and told ABC News the ensuing furor led her to an addiction to painkillers and suicidal thoughts.
“The irony is not lost on me that, a little over a year ago, all I wanted to do was die. And now, all I wanna do is life,” she said.
The star is also known for the reality show Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List, which ran between 2005-10.
Griffin’s brother Gary died of cancer in 2014, and she also lost her sister Joyce to the disease in 2017.