I Had the Same Disease. But I Was Lucky.

Sunday, August 3, 2008; Page B03 It's a dread disease. The fourth-highest cause of cancer deaths in the United States, it's usually portrayed as an unstoppable, incurable killer. It has struck some high-profile figures: Hollywood actor Patrick Swayze has been diagnosed with it. Opera star Luciano Pavarotti and former Ronald Reagan aide Michael Deaver died of it. So, too, on July 25, did Randy Pausch, the former Carnegie Mellon University computer science professor whose "last lecture" before a university audience became a YouTube sensation and a bestselling book. Last March, Pausch testified before a congressional subcommittee about his struggle with pancreatic cancer. Holding up a picture of his soon-to-be-widowed wife, he pleaded for an increase in the paltry level of federal funding for research into this lethal disease.... [read full story]