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Friends Rally to Support Swayze

News of actor's pancreatic cancer stuns Hollywood

By Marcia Greenwood, Newser Staff

Posted Mar 6, 2008 10:46 PM CST

(Newser) – Patrick Swayze's celebrity friends are offering encouragement to the actor a day after news broke that the Dirty Dancing and Ghost star has pancreatic cancer, Access Hollywood reports. “I won an Oscar because of Patrick Swayze," said Ghost co-star Whoopi Goldberg on The View. "So baby, we want you to feel better and we’ll talk soon I hope.”

Though pancreatic cancer has a 99 percent mortality rate, Swayze's disease was discovered early and is in a "very limited amount," according to his doctor. For now, the 55-year-old Swayze is continuing to work. Jennifer Grey, his co-star in Dirty Dancing, told the New York Post's Page Six, "If I saw him on the streets today, I'd throw my arms around him and love him up."

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Actor Patrick Swayze poses in this 2005 file photo. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis, file) (Associated Press)

Patrick Swayze and his wife, Lisa Niemi, attend a party at the grand opening of the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas on Saturday, Nov. 17, 2007. (AP Photo/Isaac Brekken) (Associated Press)

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Whoopi Goldberg talks about Patrick Swayze on "The View." (AssociatedPress (YouTube))

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Friends Rally to Support Swayze