Pancreatic cancer: 5 things to know about the disease that killed Aretha Franklin

The type of cancer that killed music icon Aretha Franklin is one of the most deadly forms of the disease, reports USA Today.

Five things to know:

1. The "Queen of Soul" died of pancreatic cancer Aug. 16 at age 76. This year, about 55,440 people will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and about 44,330 people will die of the disease, according to estimates from the American Cancer Society.

2. Types of pancreatic cancer are exocrine cancers and pancreatic endocrine tumors (neuroendocrine tumors). Ms. Franklin's family said in a statement obtained by USA Today that she died from advanced "pancreatic cancer of the neuroendocrine type," meaning she had a neuroendocrine tumor.

3. Neuroendocrine tumors are rare. The Pancreatic Cancer Action Network estimates about 6 percent of pancreatic tumors are neuroendocrine tumors.

4. According to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, neuroendocrine tumors often don't grow as fast as exocrine tumors and develop by the abnormal growth of islet cells in the pancreas.

5. Pancreatic cancer is one of the most deadly types of the disease — only 8 percent of people diagnosed from 2007-13 lived beyond five years, according to the report, which cites statistics from the National Cancer Institute.

Read the full USA Today report here.  

 

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