*A year after Aretha Franklin’s death at the age of 76 after a battle with a rare form of pancreatic cancer, her estate held a joint benefit with Detroit’s Women’s Informal Network to raise money for the Boston-based Neuroendocrine Tumor Research Foundation (NETRF), which established a Aretha Franklin cancer fund for cancer research, the Detroit Free Press reports.
According to the publication, Sabrina Owens, Aretha Franklin’s niece said in a statement: “The Aretha Franklin Family is honored to partner with the NETRF to help raise funding for education and research of this devastating disease that takes our loved ones much too soon.
“We encourage her friends, fans, and supporters to consider contributing to this cause, until such time as we can eradicate NETs. We believe this is possible.”
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Elyse Gellerman, chief executive officer of NETRF, added: “A lot of the work we fund is basic science in the laboratory, learning why these tumors grow and spread.
“We don’t know all the answers about that. Researchers are trying to understand these tumors at a cellular level and – with some of the treatments available – why some patients respond and others do not.
“I know the neuroendocrine tumors community was frustrated when the cause of Aretha Franklin’s death wasn’t correctly reported.”
The singer’s oncologist Dr. Philip A. Philip said: “The time that people have with this disease is measured in years, not in fractions of years or months, as it is with most patients (who have the more common) pancreatic adenocarcinoma.”
Gellerman added that the fund would help raise awareness about the rare disease, “I know the neuroendocrine tumors community was frustrated when the cause of Aretha Franklin’s death wasn’t correctly reported.”
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