Did smoking kill Patrick Swayze? If not, what did?
It started with a burning feeling in his stomach on New Year’s Eve 2008.
Later, in an interview with Barbara Walters, he stated:
“I tried to have champagne and it would be like pouring acid, you know, on an open wound, and then my indigestion issues got gigantic and constant. And then I started thinking, ‘I’m getting skinny.’”
He then dropped about 20 pounds in a matter of weeks — a very bad sign. Something was definitely going on inside. Not much later, he was diagnosed with metastasized pancreatic cancer.
Swayze decided for himself that he would not communicate his precise condition to the public: YES, he had pancreatic cancer; NO, it had not spread and he was fighting the invisible monster with all his (legendary) might.
Near January 2009 though, he was finally ready to “admit” that the cancer had metastasized to his liver, but even then downplayed his condition (as the tumor was only “a tiny little mass”).
That was the infamous Barbara Walters interview.
When asked if he thought his bad smoking habit — 60 cigarettes per day for more than three decades — had something to do with his cancer, Patrick said:
“Ooh, I don’t know … I will go so far as to say probably smoking had something to do with my pancreatic cancer.”
And most probably he was right. The risk of getting pancreatic cancer doubles if you are a smoker, and about 25% of all pancreatic cancers are attributed to cigarette smoking.
Swayze never stopped smoking though because he knew he did not had much time left anyway, as he admitted in the Barbara Walters interview.
He died eight months later.