What Kathy Griffin's Story Can Help Us Understand About Lung Cancer

The announcement

On August 2, 2021, Kathy Griffin posted that she had lung cancer and was heading into surgery. "I have cancer. I'm about to go into surgery to have half of my left lung removed," she wrote. "Yes, I have lung cancer even though I've never smoked!"

She added that her doctors were optimistic, that the cancer was stage one and contained to her left lung, and that she hoped to avoid chemotherapy or radiation. Later that day a representative told Variety that the operation went well and as planned.

Four years on, she told PhillyVoice she is cancer free. Everything below comes from what she said in public. We add the medicine, not guesses about her care.

Lung cancer without cigarettes

Most lung cancer in the United States is caused by smoking. That fact is true and it is also the reason a lot of people misread a diagnosis like hers.

Lung cancer splits into two families. Small cell lung cancer is the less common one and grows fast. Non-small cell lung cancer accounts for most cases, and its main forms are adenocarcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and large cell carcinoma.

NCI's guidance for doctors notes that adenocarcinoma may be found in people who never smoked. This is not a rare curiosity. In one series of more than 2,000 lung adenocarcinomas, changes in a gene called EGFR turned up in 52 percent of tumors from never-smokers, against 6 percent from current smokers. EGFR is a switch on the cell surface that tells a cell to divide. When it jams open, the cell keeps dividing.

That matters in practice. Tumors driven by EGFR, or by a rearranged ALK gene, often respond to pills that block those switches. So the first job after a diagnosis is not just staging. It is testing the tumor's genes.

Why stage one is a different conversation

Stage one means the tumor is still confined to the lung and has not reached lymph nodes or distant organs.

That is uncommon. SEER, NCI's cancer surveillance program, records that only 24 percent of lung cancers are found while still confined to the lung. Fully 51 percent have already spread to distant sites by the time they are found.

Surgery is the usual treatment for early non-small cell lung cancer. The standard operation is a lobectomy, which removes one lobe of the lung — the right lung has three, the left has two. Smaller operations exist, such as a segmentectomy or a wedge resection. NCI's review of the evidence notes that for small peripheral tumors under 2 centimeters, with lymph nodes checked during the operation, a phase III trial found the smaller operation no worse than lobectomy for survival. Our page on surgery for cancer explains what recovery from a major operation involves.

The voice, and why chest surgery can change it

Griffin later told PhillyVoice that the operation damaged her vocal cords, that she could speak only in a squeak for about three years, and that a vocal cord implant in 2023 restored her voice.

Voice change after chest surgery is a recognized problem. The nerves that run the voice box travel down into the chest and loop back up, passing close to structures a lung operation has to work around. NCI's clinical summary lists the laryngeal nerves among the thoracic structures that sit next to lung tumors, and hoarseness among the signs when those nerves are affected.

It is worth naming because side effects like this are usually invisible in survival statistics. A person can be cured and still spend years living with what the cure cost.

Who screening is for

Low-dose CT screening is offered to people at high risk because of a heavy smoking history and age. It is not offered to never-smokers, because the odds of finding cancer are too low to outweigh the false alarms and follow-up procedures.

That leaves symptoms as the route for everyone else. Bring these to a doctor rather than waiting them out:

• A cough that has stuck around for more than three weeks, or a long-standing cough that has changed.
• Coughing up blood, even once, even a streak.
• Shortness of breath that is new for you, or chest pain that is worse on breathing in.
• A hoarse voice lasting more than three weeks with no cold to explain it.
• Losing weight or appetite without trying.

Our guide to lung cancer screening sets out who qualifies and what a scan can and cannot do.

What this story cannot tell you

• Her stage, her operation, and her recovery describe one person. Lung cancer varies enormously, and none of it forecasts anyone else's course.
• "Never smoked" does not mean "no risk." Radon, secondhand smoke, air pollution, asbestos, and family history all matter, and sometimes no cause is found.
• Being told the tumor was contained does not mean treatment was easy. Hers took a lung lobe and years of her voice.
• SEER puts five-year relative survival at 65.5 percent for lung cancer found while still localized, against 10.5 percent once it has spread to distant sites. Both come from people diagnosed in the years 2016 through 2022. Those are averages across large groups diagnosed years ago, and they describe populations, not individuals.
• Nobody earns lung cancer, and stigma keeps people from mentioning a cough. That is the practical harm.

Sources

• Associated Press via PBS NewsHour: Kathy Griffin says she is undergoing surgery for lung cancer
• Variety: Kathy Griffin recovering from lung cancer surgery
• PhillyVoice: Kathy Griffin on cancer, addiction and PTSD, February 2025
• NCI PDQ: Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Treatment (Health Professional Version)
• NCI SEER Cancer Stat Facts: Lung and Bronchus Cancer

How this article was prepared

An AI-assisted editorial system helped prepare this page. No named medical reviewer has reviewed it unless one is listed.

Cancer Explained is published by the National Cancer Information Foundation. It is not medical advice and does not suggest a test or treatment.

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