‘Big Bang Theory’ Star Kate Micucci Shares Lung Cancer Diagnosis on TikTok
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The Big Bang Theory actor Kate Micucci, 43, shocked fans by announcing on TikTok that she has lung cancer despite never smoking cigarettes. But she’s actually one of a growing number of young female nonsmokers to develop this disease.
Micucci, appearing in a hospital gown the day after she had lung cancer surgery, jokingly declared: “This is not a TikTok, it’s a SickTok.”
Then she described a scenario that is happening to more and more younger adults — especially women. “It’s really weird, because I’ve never smoked a cigarette in my life so, uh, you know, it was a surprise,” Micucci said in the clip she posted on December 8. “But I guess it happens, and so the greatest news is they caught it early, they got it out — I’m all good.”
While the vast majority of lung cancer cases are caused by smoking cigarettes, as many as 1 in 5 cases happen in people who never smoked or who smoked fewer than 100 cigarettes over their entire lifetime, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Out of up to about 40,000 new lung cancer cases each year, roughly 7,300 cases are due to secondhand smoke exposure and about 2,900 are caused by radon, the CDC notes.
As smoking has become less common, lung cancer rates overall have declined in the United States, according to the CDC.
But recent research suggests that for nonsmokers, lung cancer is on the rise — especially among women. Today, up to 20 percent of new lung cancer cases in men and more than half of new cases in women happen in nonsmokers.
Diagnosing Lung Cancer in Nonsmokers
Because lung cancer screening isn’t recommended for nonsmokers, this type of cancer may not be caught until people have symptoms, such as chest pain, coughing, fatigue, or shortness of breath, according to the CDC. In many of these cases, tumors are caught when the cancer is more advanced and harder to treat.
That’s not what happened in Micucci’s case. In response to a comment on her TikTok post, she said that doctors caught a spot on her lung when they did a scan of her heart to explore the cause of some abnormal blood test results.
When it comes to lung cancer among nonsmokers, Micucci’s situation isn’t that unusual, said Tejas Patil, MD, an assistant professor of medical oncology at the University of Colorado Cancer Center, in a statement about her diagnosis.
“Lung cancer patients who never smoked tend to be younger and tend to be women, so that is fairly common,” Dr. Patil said.
Lung Cancer Surgery
Lung cancer surgery is an ideal situation because this means the cancer was diagnosed quickly, Patil added. “Surgery only makes sense if someone has early-stage cancer,” Patil said. “Once the cancer has spread outside the chest, surgery is usually no longer on the table.”
The single best way to prevent lung cancer is to not smoke, or quit if you’re a smoker. Avoiding exposure to secondhand smoke and carcinogens like radon, asbestos, radiation, diesel exhaust, and air pollution can also lower your risk, according to the CDC.
“Except for smoking, the biggest risk factors are occupational and environmental exposures,” said Rohit Kumar, MD, a pulmonologist at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, in a November 28 statement.
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