lung cancer

The 60-year-old wrote on social media that she was "about to go into surgery to have half of my left lung removed".

She said doctors were "very optimistic" and that the cancer had not spread beyond her left lung.

"I should be up and running around as usual in a month or less," said the star, known for her stand-up routines and TV shows like Suddenly Susan.

"The doctors are very optimistic as it is stage one and contained to my left lung," the Grammy and Emmy award winner told her followers.

Over the next few years, the X-ray technician from Albuquerque, New Mexico, developed a persistent cough and wheezing, which her doctors attributed to exercise-induced asthma. She had other symptoms, too: weight loss, fever, and several bouts of pneumonia.

Still, when Rivas finally decided to perform a chest X-ray on herself, cancer was the last thing on her mind.

The image revealed a mass on her right lung that turned out to be a malignant tumor. Rivas was 32 and had never smoked a cigarette in her life. "I want people to know lung cancer can happen to anyone," she says.