‘Housewives’ star Kathryn Joosten’s lung cancer returns; she says she hopes to educate

‘Housewives’ sidekick Joosten’s cancer is back

NEW YORK — Kathryn Joosten (JOO’-sten), who plays the crotchety Karen McCluskey on ABC’s “Desperate Housewives,” is battling a recurrence of lung cancer.

Joosten’s publicist, Thomas DeLorenzo, says a spot on the left lung was detected during a recent physical.

He says the 69-year-old actress started smoking when she was 16 but quit after her first lung cancer diagnosis in 2001.

Joosten wants to alter the perceptions that people with lung cancer did it to themselves. She says that stigma combined with denial that it kills as many as 450 people every day “creates an environment in which no diagnostics or treatments can be developed.”

Joosten also appeared on “The West Wing.”

ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co.

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