Marilyn Horne Cancer-Free After Opera-tion

Pancreatic cancer, as far as we knew, isn't beatable. Even opera singer Marilyn Horne used to think so.

"I looked at the doctor and I said, 'Well, that's a death sentence, isn't it?'" Horne says of the news that she had pancreatic cancer, the same disease that killed her friend and fellow opera star Luciano Pavarotti.

Horne began receiving the injections of lab-grown pancreatic cancer cells in early 2007, after surgery to remove the tumor. The vaccine has been genetically modified with an immune-boosting gene to tackle any lingering malignant cells.

In her kitchen, she summed up her approach to her life after a cancer diagnosis. "I don't think it's 'I want to live' — it's 'I'm going to live!'"

Pancreatic cancer is now beatable if you get treated at Johns Hopkins University? Next thing you know you'll be telling us that the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus and The Tooth Fairy are all still alive.

[Hartford Courant]