Jennifer Hudson's Tribute To Aretha Franklin
- Jennifer Hudson penned a touching message in honor of the 2-year anniversary since Aretha Franklin passed away from pancreatic cancer
- Hudson is depicting Franklin in an upcoming biopic film of her music career titled Respect, which is set to hit theaters in January 2021
- Pancreatic cancer is an extremely difficult type of cancer to treat, and stands as one of the leading causes of cancer death in the United States
On Instagram, Hudson, 38, posted a throwback photo of Franklin and penned a touching message in honor of two years since she passed away from pancreatic cancer. Hudson is depicting Franklin in the upcoming biopic Respect, which follows Franklin’s journey into singing stardom.
Read MoreThe "Respect" singer died in August 2018 at age 76 after a battle with pancreatic cancer more specifically, Franklin was dealing with a rare form of pancreatic cancer where neuroendocrine tumors formed on her pancreas. She started treatment for the disease in 2010, and underwent targeted drug therapy and chemotherapy. Despite pancreatic cancer being one of the most difficult cancers to treat, the late singer’s doctor said that she never stopped fighting.
The Difficulty in Treating Pancreatic Cancer
Compared to other types of cancers, pancreatic cancer is one of the most difficult cancers to successfully treat, making it the third leading cause of cancer death in the United States. The reason it’s difficult to treat is due to the stroma which is surrounded by cancer cells creating a barrier so it’s more difficult for medications to get in to the cancer to kill it.
"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. Allyson Ocean, a Medical Oncologist at Weill Cornell Medical Center. "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."
Dr. Allyson Ocean explains why pancreatic cancer is so hard to treat
In addition to the stroma, one of the biggest challenges in treating pancreatic cancer is because it’s often diagnosed in later stages because in many cases, symptoms don’t start to present themselves until the disease has advanced. Without symptoms, people don’t realize they need to get screened regularly. Plus, a large issue lies in screening methods themselves, which unfortunately still need to be improved because there can be a number of false positives.
"It is not prudent to be screening everyone," he said. "So instead, our efforts are now focused on screening only those subsets of individuals who are at higher risk for pancreatic cancer." says Dr. Anirban Maitra, co-leader of Pancreatic Cancer Moon Shot at MD Anderson Cancer Center.
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