Patrick Swayze Has Cancer

Yes, it is true that Patrick Swayze (pictured above) is currently undergoing treatment for pancreatic cancer – but what is not true is that he only has a few weeks to live.

“Patrick has a very limited amount of disease and he appears to be responding well to treatment so far,” said the actor’s personal physician, Dr. George Fisher. “All of the reports stating the timeframe of his prognosis and his physical side effects are absolutely untrue.”

The National Enquirer broke the news of the illness on their website saying that Swayze had already dropped 20 pounds and was given only five weeks to live. That is so rude!

According to the actor’s reps, “Patrick is continuing his normal schedule during this time, which includes working on upcoming projects.”

In a recent interview with E! News, Swayze’s mother Patsy Swayze (who also happens to be a great dancer and happens to be one of Patrick’s choreographers) said, “I don’t really want to talk about it, but I know he’s sick,” the optimistic mother said. “But he has great doctors and a great prognosis, and that’s all I can say.”

For those younger readers who don’t know who I’ve been talking about here’s a little history lesson:

Actor Patrick Swayze is best known for a few big hits in the 1980’s and 1990’s including “Ghost” (with Demi Moore and Whoopi Goldberg: can anyone say “Unchained Melody”?), “Point Break” (with “Matrix” star Keanu Reeves), and best and most well known of them all perhaps is “Dirty Dancing”, in which he played dance instructor / “cradle snatcher” Johnny Castle alongside Jennifer Grey. See the infamous dance move they performed in the movie below.

As for more recent works, Swayze is recently cast as a gay cheerleading instructor in the comedy movie “Fired Up.” The movie stars Disturbia’s Sarah Roemer. They already started filming last month and the movie is set to be released in 2010 — how far away is that?

For TV, he had already filmed the pilot episode for a series called “The Beast,” where he stars as an undercover FBI agent. The network, A&E, said they are still considering the show for next season.

According to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, the disease is the most lethal of all the leading cancers. Survival rate is less than 5 percent. After diagnosis, very few patients live more than five years. According to the American Cancer Society, the disease will claim 35,000 people in the U.S. alone this year. Opera great Luciano Pavarotti and actor Michael Landon both died of pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer is considered as almost always fatal because it is very difficult to detect, early to metastasize and resistant to most treatments.

And yet people of the world don’t seem to know anything it.

According to pancreatica.org, pancreatic cancer research is funded at far lower levels than other forms even though nearly as many people die of the disease as one of the more popular forms like breast cancer. In comparison, funding for pancreatic cancer is a mere 15 percent of that for breast cancer.

Let us hope this current fight for Swayze will be taken in a positive light and would help increase awareness of the disease.