- Kaity Tong, 76, has been a popular television news anchor since the 1980s
- Despite being a lifelong non-smoker, she was diagnosed with lung cancer
- The surprising revelation came days after Big Bang Theory star Kate Micucci announced her similar diagnosis
Pix11 news anchor Kaity Tong revealed on social media that she was diagnosed with lung cancer despite being a lifelong non-smoker.
The surprising revelation came shortly after Big Bang Theory star Kate Micucci shared on TikTok her journey to recovery from a similar diagnosis.
Tong, the 76-year-old Emmy Award-winning television news anchor, candidly shared her stage one lung cancer diagnosis on social media on Saturday.
She urged her followers to seek medical attention and undergo routine breast exams given the increasing prevalence of the disease.
“I was recently diagnosed with lung cancer. “I’m a lifelong non-smoker,” she wrote on Instagram.
“Doctors told me that this diagnosis is becoming more common among Asians, especially women who are non-smokers. That would be me. And maybe that's YOU.'
Pix11 news anchor Kaity Tong, 76, revealed on social media that she has been diagnosed with lung cancer despite being a lifelong non-smoker. Tong has been a popular television news anchor since the 1980s at WABC and at WPIX, where she was a channel anchor for nearly 20 years
Tong has been a popular television news anchor since the 1980s at WABC and at WPIX, where she served as co-anchor of Channel 11 for nearly 20 years.
The 76-year-old news anchor shared details about her initial diagnosis and highlighted the increasing prevalence of the disease among Asian non-smokers. She also encouraged her followers to undergo regular breast exams.
“If you fit this profile, I strongly encourage you to talk to your doctor and decide whether you should get tested, even if you don't have any symptoms.” “A routine chest X-ray after a particularly bad cold got my Cancer discovered,” she wrote.
'I was lucky. Stage one. So the cancer was discovered before it could spread. I had robotic surgery to remove the tumor. I'm recovering at home now.
“It's been a slow but steady recovery. Mainly to get my breathing back to normal and help the rest of my lungs compensate for the loss of a lobe.”
The Emmy Award-winning television news anchor candidly shared her stage one lung cancer diagnosis on social media on Saturday
Tong said she has not appeared on Pix11 News for several weeks and expressed her hope of returning by mid-January.
'DR. Isbell tells me that I am now cancer free. No chemo or radiation required. And the chance of recurrence is very low.
“If my journey encourages even one person who fits this profile to undergo screening, I will be grateful,” she wrote.
The surprising revelation came days after Micucci, the 43-year-old actress known for her role in the eight-episode series “Big Bang Theory” from 2013 to 2017, made a similar diagnosis.
The surprising revelation came shortly after Big Bang Theory star Kate Micucci shared her recovery journey following a similar diagnosis on TikTok. The surprising revelation came days after Micucci, the 43-year-old actress known for her role in the eight-episode series Big Bang Theory from 2013 to 2017, revealed a similar diagnosis
Micucci, who like Tong is a non-smoker, took to TikTok last week to document her recovery from successful surgery to remove lung cancer.
While lying in a hospital bed and hooked up to an IV, she said: “Hello everyone, this isn't a TikTok, it's a Sick Tok.”
“I'm in the hospital, but that's because I had lung cancer surgery yesterday. “They caught it very early.”
“It's really strange because I've never smoked a cigarette in my life, so it was a surprise.” But I also think it's happening, and the best news is that they caught it early, put it out there , I'm doing well.
“It was a little journey and [I’ll] I’ll probably make slow progress for a few weeks, but then I’ll be back at it.”
Revealing how she was first diagnosed, she said: “I had something in my blood work that came back really high.”
“So I went to a preventive doctor who did a few scans. He scanned my heart and discovered the spot in my lungs.”
The actress, who played Raj's (Kunal Nayyar) lover Lucy in eight episodes on the series between 2013 and 2017, used TikTok to document her recovery after a successful surgery to remove the disease
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States. Detection is carried out using low-dose computed tomography (CT).
One in six people will be diagnosed with lung cancer in their lifetime, and more than 127,000 people die each year.
A recent report from the ACS found that young women are more likely to suffer from lung cancer than men.
In the 1980s, men were almost twice as likely to develop the disease than women, due to higher smoking rates and workplace exposure to substances such as asbestos.
But with cigarette consumption declining and safety regulations declining, the pattern has reversed: young and middle-aged people are now diagnosed with the disease more often than men.
In 1992 there were around 65 new cases of lung cancer per 100,000 people; in 2019 there were only around 42.
WHAT IS LUNG CANCER?
Lung cancer is one of the most common and serious types of cancer.
Around 47,000 people in the UK are diagnosed with the disease every year.
There are usually no signs or symptoms in the early stages of lung cancer, but many people with this disease eventually develop symptoms including:
– a persistent cough
– Coughing up blood
– persistent shortness of breath
– unexplained fatigue and weight loss
– Pain when breathing or coughing
If you have these symptoms, you should see a family doctor.
Types of lung cancer
There are two main forms of primary lung cancer.
These are classified according to the type of cells in which the cancer begins to grow.
They are:
– Non-small cell lung cancer. The most common form, accounting for more than 87 percent of cases.
– It can be one of three types: squamous cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma or large cell carcinoma.
– Small cell lung cancer – a rarer form that usually spreads faster than non-small cell lung cancer.
– The type of lung cancer you have will determine which treatments are recommended.
Who is affected?
Lung cancer primarily affects older people. It rarely occurs in people under 40.
More than four in 10 people diagnosed with lung cancer in the UK are aged 75 and over.
Although people who have never smoked can develop lung cancer, smoking is the most common cause (about 72 percent of cases).
Because when you smoke, you regularly inhale various toxins.
Lung cancer treatment
Treatment depends on the type of cancer mutation, how far it has spread, and your general health.
If the disease is diagnosed early and the cancer cells are confined to a small area, surgery to remove the affected area of the lung may be recommended.
If surgery is unsuitable due to your general health, radiation therapy to destroy the cancer cells may be recommended instead.
If the cancer has spread too far for surgery or radiation therapy to be effective, chemotherapy is usually used.
There are also a number of medications called targeted therapies.
They target a specific change in or around the cancer cells that helps them grow.
Targeted therapies cannot cure lung cancer, but they can slow its spread.
Source: NHS