WASHINGTON – Upon receipt Mark Twain's award at the Kennedy Center Sunday, Julia Louis-Dreyfus explained how humor had helped her in the fight against breast cancer.

"Last year, I was fortunate to get an Emmy Award for my performance in" Veep ", which was an incredible thrill – and it set some sort of record for most somebody's Emmys for doing something, "Louis-Dreyfus, 57, has started. "Then about 12 hours later, I was diagnosed with cancer, another hilarious turn." I'm half joking, of course.Cancer is not funny at all, but a lot of its treatment was to find the fun times.

"The old cliché that laughter is the best medicine turns out to be true," she continued, "which is good because that's what the current administration is trying to to replace Obamacare. "

Seinfeld's alum shared his diagnosis with the world in September 2017 on Twitter, writing: "One in eight women has breast cancer. Today, I am the only one. "

While Louis-Dreyfus underwent chemotherapy, the production of "Veep" was suspended. She returned to the set of "Veep" in August.

Sharing exactly how humor has helped her get healed, Louis-Dreyfus has painted an almost comical picture.

"When I received my hideous chemotherapy, I put a whole family and friends in this small treatment room with me, and we really laughed," she said. "Of course, I was heavily medicated and I slipped into consciousness, so I was probably an audience easy enough to understand, but the fact is that laughter is a basic human need, with love, food and a subscription to HBO.

"There is no situation – none – that does not improve with some laughter," she added.

"Everyone needs to laugh," she says, strangling her. "So the fact that I had the opportunity to make people laugh in my life is one of the many blessings I have received in my life."

Contributors: Andrea Mandell

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