This past Friday marked one year since the unfortunate passing of Aretha Franklin. And in honor of the late singing sensation, her estate has decided to launch a fund which would support continued research into the very same cancer that robbed us of Franklin. According to the news outlet Spin, the Aretha Franklin Fund for Neuroendocrine Cancer Research will be dedicated to continuing investigating the underlying causes of pancreatic cancers including the rare kind that took Aretha's life. The cancer from which the singer suffers only happens in 7% of the cases and it also was responsible for the passing of Apple CEO Steve Jobs back in 2011. The new fund consists of a partnership with a Detroit-based company entitled the Women's Informal Network as well as Boston's Neuroendocrine Tumor Research Foundation (NETRF).
"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," were the words shared by NETRF's head Elyse Gellerman. Accordingly, both cancers and other rare life-threatening diseases will be investigated and looked into via research supported by the fund.
RIP Aretha Franklin.