Health Conditions / Cancer / Lung Cancer

Lopez quit smoking cold turkey on a family trip. He took up running, participating in races ranging in distance from 5Ks to half marathons. He still sometimes struggled with smoking, occasionally lighting up. Once he threw himself into running more seriously and started training for full marathons, Lopez’s desire to smoke completely disappeared. He hasn’t smoked in nearly a decade.“Running has been a big part of my transformation from a habit standpoint,” he says. “There’s [probably] more I can do to cover every angle of my health, but, at this point, I’m probably at the peak of my self-care when it comes to nutrition, healthy habits, sleep, and striking a work-life balance. My family is my biggest motivation in all I do. They’re my ‘why,’ and I want to be here [for them] for as long as I can, in the best shape possible and taking care of myself.”“I used an app and was motivated by the numbers.”Katie Meeker, 37, started smoking at age 18 shortly after starting college. Although both her parents were smokers, she had no desire to pick it up until she found herself in social situations where everyone else was smoking. Meeker tells SELF that she’s always been driven by milestones, so once she started planning her wedding in 2014, she set the goal to quit that year after almost nine years of smoking. “It wasn’t necessarily that I wanted to quit smoking by the time I got married,” Meeker says, “But it was one of those milestones of, All right, I’m an adult. I’m growing up, getting my life together. This is the year that I quit smoking.”After setting that goal and experiencing a particularly rough case of bronchitis where she wasn’t physically able to smoke, Meeker was committed. “That was definitely the catalyst for quitting, that I got sick and couldn’t smoke. [After that,] I really needed the motivation to keep going and to not start smoking again,” she says.A friend turned Meeker on to the QuitNow app, which she downloaded to stay on track. She found that she was very motivated by the gamification of the app, which generates stats like how long it has been since you smoked, how many cigarettes you’ve avoided, and how much money you’ve saved by not buying cigarettes. It also estimates the potential health benefits you continue to reap the longer you stay smoke-free.“Right now, I’ve quit for eight years, 72 days and 10 hours, I’ve avoided almost 30,000 cigarettes [based on entering that I smoked 20 cigarettes, or a pack a day], I’ve saved $4,400, and I’ve ‘won back’ 124 days of my life, based on World Health Organization data,” Meeker says. “[According to the app], I’m 81% of the way of having my risk of lung cancer fall to about that of half of a smoker, and my risks of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, cervix, and pancreas, as well as coronary heart disease, [are decreasing].”

Kathy Griffin appears to be having the time of her life celebrating her recovery from lung cancer. In a sun-drenched video the Search Party star shared on social media, she’s taking in a glorious ocean view from the calm waters of an infinity pool. Oh, and she’s nude. Alongside this clip, the comedian shared some exciting news: “6 month lung cancer scan is CLEAN!!! No more #cancer,” she wrote on Instagram and Twitter. “And yes, i’m skinny dipping in the pool while shaking my boobs and butt. SO WHAT?” The joyful video, viewed nearly 700,000 times across her social media accounts at press time, received a stream of encouraging comments from actors including Adam Devine, Debra Messing, and Ben Stiller. Some of her fans also took to the comments section to share the various ways in which they celebrated being cancer-free, with some of them also including a bit of nudity. We get it, being cancer-free is liberating. Being nude? Also very liberating.Instagram contentThis content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.The 61-year-old comedian and actor revealed back in August that she had been diagnosed with lung cancer. “I’ve got to tell you guys something. I have cancer. I’m about to go into surgery to have half of my left lung removed,” Griffin said on Twitter. “Yes, I have lung cancer even though I’ve never smoked! The doctors are very optimistic as it 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.” It makes sense that Griffin would bring smoking into the conversation. According to the Mayo Clinic, smoking causes the majority of lung cancer cases, a fact that has been observed in both smokers and in people who have been exposed to secondhand smoke. Those who smoke cigarettes are 15 to 30 times more likely to develop lung cancer or to die from lung cancer than those who do not smoke at all, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). But the CDC has also found that between 10% to 20% of lung cancer cases, or 20,000 to 40,000 each year, occur in nonsmokers. Which was the case for Griffin.Griffin first announced that her cancer had gone into remission in November 2021 during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Since having surgery to remove half of one of her lungs, she has shared regular public updates of her journey, including her first coastal walks after the operation as well as updates that her voice had become “really hoarse” as a result of the surgery. “It will heal, but I’m sort of enjoying it. I’m a good two octaves higher, I think,” she said at the time. “It’s higher than Mariah Carey, I know that.”Related:

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.