Soul legend Aretha Franklin has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, according to reports in The Detroit News , Detroit’s Fox 2 and The National Enquirer — though phone calls by Rolling Stone to two Franklin representatives were not returned. (The News credits "a source familiar with the situation"; Fox 2 says its source is a relative of Franklin’s.)
Franklin recently canceled all of her tour dates through May 2011 and last week had a surgery for an unknown ailment. In a statement, the singer called her surgery "highly successful," though Detroit residents held a prayer vigil for the singer last week, and Jesse Jackson visited her in the hospital last Friday.
Pancreatic cancer is a particularly lethal form of the disease. Most people die within one year of the diagnosis, and less than five percent of them live more than five years.
