Yahoo Finance Kathy Griffin Says She's Officially Cancer Free: 'I Had Half of My Left Lung Removed'
Kathy Griffin is celebrating good news.
The comedian, 61, is officially cancer free, she shared on a Tuesday episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live. After revealing her lung cancer diagnosis in August, Griffin told host Jimmy Kimmel that she had a successful surgery to remove the cancer.
"I'm cancer free!" Griffin exclaimed, as the studio audience cheered and applauded.
Griffin shared earlier this year that she had been diagnosed with stage 1 lung cancer. When she appeared on Kimmel's show, she had a breathier, higher voice after undergoing surgery — and the comic immediately cracked a joke about it.
Jimmy Kimmel Live
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"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," she told Kimmel, 54, before explaining that her voice was temporarily altered by an intubation tube affecting her vocal cord.
"So now I'm like Minnie Mouse meets Marilyn Monroe," Griffin quipped.
"It will heal, but I'm sort of enjoying it. I'm a good two octaves higher, I think," she said, before joking, "It's higher than Mariah Carey, I know that."
When Kimmel asked, "Did the doctors get it all? They got all the lung cancer out of there?" Griffin confirmed that her tumor had been fully removed.
Jimmy Kimmel Live
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"Yes! So I'm cancer free," she said. "I don't know why, I had a tumor, right? And I've never smoked, and it was in there for 10 years. So get this, they took it out, and they found it on another scan. 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."
Griffin explained, "So I go in, and 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.' "
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When she first shared the news of her diagnosis, Griffin encouraged her fans to stay "up to date on your medical check ups," and remained optimistic about her own health, writing on Instagram, "I'm gonna be just fine."
In early August, a rep for Griffin told PEOPLE the comedian's surgery "went well" and she was recovering after having part of her lung removed. Days later, Griffin was out of the hospital and healing at home with her four dogs, whom she affectionately called her "board certified medical PAWfessional recovery pack."
