Jennifer Hudson Says Faith Was ‘Important’ While Portraying Aretha Franklin in ‘Respect’; The Queen of Soul Passed from Pancreatic Cancer in 2018

Hudson says in a new interview with The Christian Post that her faith and Christian background were critical while making the film and portraying Franklin. She says of the late soul singer, “I am a child of God, born in the church. I feel like one of our closest connections is our faith with having that background coming from the church, which I completely understood instantly.”

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Many people turn to faith and religious communities for strength in new situations, like portraying a legend like Franklin, and also for support through difficult times, such as battling cancer. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 69% of cancer patients say that they rely on faith throughout cancer treatment, and use prayer as a way to call for good health.

Aretha’s Pancreatic Cancer Fight

Two of the late singer's doctors spoke to The Associated Press about how she began treatment in 2010 and wanted to continue living her life, and continue performing, as best as she could. "I think she had her priorities very clear in mind," Dr. Manisha Shah, of Ohio State University, told the AP. "…She would ask my how long this treatment would go for, what would be her restrictions. As far as I can see, she was able to live that dream, or her plan."

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Franklin's doctors said the singer's particular disease had several treatment options. The route they chose was targeted drug therapy and chemotherapy. They also said that until the very end of her life, they never saw signs that Franklin planned to give up the fight.

MD Anderson's Pancreatic Cancer Moon Shot

Pancreatic Cancer Treatment

Pancreatic cancer is an aggressive disease, making it more difficult to successfully treat. It’s also the third leading cause of cancer death in the United States. This cancer is difficult to treat because of the stroma, which is surrounded by cancer cells and creates a barrier that renders it more difficult for medications to access the cancer to kill it.

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In a previous interview, Dr. Allyson Ocean, a medical oncologist at Weill Cornell Medical Center, explains the stroma. "Think of pancreatic cancer as an oatmeal raisin cookie and the raisins are actually the cancer cells, and the cookie part is actually all the stroma around it," says Dr. Ocean. "And imagine having to navigate through all that stroma for a treatment to be able to get into a cell to kill it. So that's why the treatments just really aren't good enough to penetrate the cancer. But we're improving, we're getting better treatments."

Detecting Pancreatic Cancer Early Is Crucial

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