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Famous Survivors of Lung Cancer
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- Metaweb (FB)
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In 2017, Larry King revealed that he recently underwent surgery for lung cancer.
"I never thought it would happen to me. I saw all the warnings, but I never paid attention. I loved smoking, but when I had the heart attack that February of 1987, I stopped that day and never reached for one again,” he said, “It was easy for me because I got scared to death."
- Age: 90
- Birthplace: New York City, USA, New York
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- Frank Driggs Collection
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John Wayne, a five-pack-a-day smoker, underwent surgery for lung cancer in 1964.
"The X‐rays showed a spot on my lung. They brought me up to Los Angeles to Good Samaritan Hospital and opened me up," he told the New York Times at the time.
The surgery was initially successful at treating the cancer and the True Grit star lived for over a decade aftewards. While he beat the lung cancer, until he ultimately died due to stomach cancer in 1979. He was 72 years old.
- Age: Dec. at 72 (1907-1979)
- Birthplace: Winterset, Iowa, USA
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- Gracenote
Lance Armstrong was diagnosed with testicular cancer in October 1996 at the age of 25. Soon after, a dozen tumors were found in his lungs and cancer was also found in his abdomen.
By December of 1996, Armstrong was declared cancer-free.
- Age: 53
- Birthplace: Dallas, Texas, USA
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In 1974, Ayn Rand, a longtime smoker, underwent surgery for lung cancer. She lived until 1982 when congestive heart failure took her life.
- Age: Dec. at 77 (1905-1982)
- Birthplace: Saint Petersburg, Russia
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- Mexicaans fotomagazijn
- flickr
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Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood had surgery for lung cancer in 2017. Wood was fortunate as his cancer was contained to one lung and easier than average to treat.
"If your body is riddled with cancer, it’s a losing cause. Luckily, all mine was contained within the left lung and I was fortunate enough to get shot of it, bang. There was none in the rest of my body so I didn’t require chemo," he said in a 2018 interview with Rolling Stone Magazine.
- Age: 77
- Birthplace: Hillingdon, Middlesex, England, UK
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- Fredrick Brown
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Tammy Faye
Tammy Faye Baker Messner was diagnosed with colon cancer in 1996 and in 2004 she revealed that it had spread to her lungs. She fought the disease for three years, but by 2007 her doctors had stopped treatment. She died on July 20, 2007 a the age of 65.
- Age: Dec. at 65 (1942-2007)
- Birthplace: International Falls, Minnesota, USA
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- Pandemonium73
- Wikimedia Commons
- CC BY-SA 3.0
Malcolm Young
AC/DC musician Malcolm Young was treated for lung cancer in 2008. The treatment was successful and Young lived an additional nine years. He passed away in 2017, at the age of 64, after suffering from dementia for several years.
- Age: Dec. at 64 (1953-2017)
- Birthplace: Glasgow, Scotland
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In 2009, Bryant Gumbel underwent surgery to remove a tumor from his lung. A year after the treatment, he was in good health again and cancer free.
- Age: 75
- Birthplace: USA, New Orleans, Louisiana
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Shelley Morrison credits her relationship with her husband Walter Dominguez and her friendship with Will & Grace co-star Megan Mullally with helping her overcome two bouts with breast cancer as well as a lung cancer diagnosis.
"Every day is a new opportunity. This is a tough journey to go through. You need to smile as much as possible to make it a bit easier," she said in a 2018 interview with Closer Weekly.
- Age: Dec. at 83 (1936-2019)
- Birthplace: Bronx, New York, USA
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In 2002, Kara Kennedy was diagnosed with lung cancer. She underwent chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery to treat the disease. Her brother Patrick Kennedy believes that the aggressive treatment weakened her heart and led her to die of a heart attack in 2011.
- Age: Dec. at 51 (1960-2011)
- Birthplace: Bronxville, New York
In 1993, Dallas actor Ken Kercheval was diagnosed with lung cancer and underwent a surgery to remove half of a lung. He reportedly smoked approximately 60 cigarettes a day prior to the surgery.
- Age: 89
- Birthplace: Wolcottville, Orange Township, USA, Indiana
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In a 2014 interview with NPR, poet Nikki Giovanni explained that giving herself time to be sad about her lung cancer diagnosis helped her focus on getting better. She stated:
So the first thing I had to say to myself was, OK I need a doctor. I need good doctors. But I also knew that it made me incredibly sad, and if anybody who's listening to us has been diagnosed with cancer, it is just - you don't want to hear it - it's a very sad thing. And I said to myself, OK I know that if I allow myself to be sad, I'm going to make myself worse. So what I have to do is find time to be sad and then I have to go about my business of trying to see if I can find a way - not to defeat cancer; I would never, ever, ever use those words - but to live with it.
- Age: 81
- Birthplace: Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
In 2008, Stefanie Powers underwent a successful surgery for lung cancer.
"Everyone is resilient, everybody should get a medal at a certain point for surviving, because life is not easy for anybody. If you’ve lived enough years, it’s inevitable you will have gone through a lot of highs and lows," she said in a 2016 interview with The Telegraph.
- Age: 81
- Birthplace: Hollywood, California, USA
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- Metaweb (FB)
- Public domain
Gerald McRaney had a lung removed due to lung cancer in 2004, which successfully removed all cancer.
"The first thing I thought of when they told me I had cancer was that I want more time with my wife. At my six-month checkup, when they told me, 'We got everything' and there's no sign of it coming back, one of the first things I thought is: I get some more time with her," he said in a 2014 interview.
- Age: 77
- Birthplace: Collins, Mississippi, USA
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John Fleming
John Fleming reportedly recovered from lung cancer to become an popular DJ in the UK and beyond in the late 1990s.
