Italian opera superstar Luciano Pavarotti, who had surgery for pancreatic cancer in July 2006 and then was hospitalized this August 8 due to a high fever, will stay in the hospital for further testing related to his disease.

Pavarotti, 71, is now fever-free. Still, he will remain hospitalized so his cancer can be fully investigated.

At the time of Pavarotti’s surgery, he had been planning to resume his farewell tour. But he has made no public appearances since this time.

Mervyn Edward Griffin Jr., a true pioneer in the television industry, passed away Sunday morning lengthy battle with prostate cancer. He was 82.

Friends say he impacted almost every corner of TV programming for decades. If he wasn’t in front of a crowd, he was behind the camera or behind the scenes, credited with shaping the television world.

Griffin began his TV career over half a century ago. His number one hit “I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts” propelled his career in 1950.

He launched Jeopardy! in the 1960’s, and the show still brings good ratings even today. The broadcasting pioneer sold his shows in 1986, as well as Merv Griffin Enterprises. They went for a reported value of $250 million, and a share of future profits. It was reported that Griffin made $80 million in royalties alone for composing the theme song to Jeopardy!.

Merv Griffin was initially diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1996. He made good progress against the cancer but then his condition declined rapidly, and by Friday he was reported to be in grave condition.

Merv Griffin is survived by his only son, Anthony. “My father was a visionary,” he said. “He loved business and continued his many projects and holdings even while hospitalized.”

The Utah Jazz’s Derek Fisher finds himself in a whole new ballgame lately as he helps his 10-month-old daughter, Tatum, fight for her life.

Tatum was diagnosed last week with retinoblastoma, a cancerous tumor in her left eye. Fisher, who was excused from his team to begin dealing with his daughter’s illness, flew his family — his wife Candace, Tatum, and Tatum’s twin brother Drew, to New York on Monday to see a specialist.

Fisher and his wife must decide on a course of treatment for their daughter. Their options are removal of the eye or a combination of surgery and chemotherapy. Their most pressing goal is to save Tatum’s life. They also want to save her eye. And they think in her case, she should be able to keep her eye.

Tatum’s condition was first noticed by her mother who detected an odd reflection of light coming from her eye. The Fishers took her to a few doctors and then a pediatrician at the University of Utah who diagnosed the problem. Brother Drew has no signs of the condition.

Only 350 cases of retinoblastoma are diagnosed in the United States each year. The good news is that 95 to 98 percent of children grow to live a long life.

Fisher is back to playing ball. And when the basketball season ends, he and his wife say they will talk more about their daughter and her disease.

“My wife and I definitely plan to try and help as many people as we can,” Fisher said. “I don’t know how we’ll be able to at this point. If there’s a treatment out there, they should be able to get it. Some people can’t afford to get it. Some people don’t have the resources.”

Former televangelist Tammy Faye Messner, formerly Tammy Faye Bakker, posted Tuesday on her website (service is currently unavailable) a message about her health.

Messner, 65, reports that doctors have stopped treating her cancer. She was diagnosed with colon cancer in 1996 and announced in 2004 that the disease had spread to her lungs.

“I am down weight-wise to 65 pounds, and look like a scarecrow,” the Charlotte resident shared on her site. “I need God’s miracle to swallow. I look at young people and wish with all my heart for just one day of ‘feeling great.’”

Messner, whose daughter and daughter’s friends are taking care of her while her husband, Roe Messner, is off building churches, went on to write, “the doctors have stopped trying to treat the cancer and so now it’s up to God and my faith. And that’s enough!”

Divorced from Jim Bakker in 1992 while he was serving a sentence for financial fraud, Messner is half of the famous Bakker pair that founded a Christian retreat in Fort Mill, S.C., and built a multimillion-dollar evangelism empire. She also starred on the VH1 reality show Surreal Life and is the author of several books, among them her recent I Will Survive…and You Will Too!

Movie critic Roger Ebert expects to be back to work at his annual festival for overlooked movies this week. It will be his first public appearance since having cancer surgery last summer — and while some say his appearance may attract the gossip papers, Ebert says, “So what?”

Ebert, 64, will be seen at the ninth annual Overlooked Film Festival, beginning today at the University of Urbana-Champaign, wearing a gauze bandage around his neck. And his mouth will be seen to droop, he says.

This is all because of Ebert’s tracheostomy — it opens an airway through an incision in his windpipe, rendering him speechless — that resulted from his June 16 surgery to remove a cancerous growth on his salivary gland and a subsequent July 1 surgery to repair a burst blood vessel close to the same site.

On Tuesday, Ebert shared that his cancer began in his salivary gland but then spread to his lower right jaw. As a result, part of his mandible was removed and two surgeries were necessary to reconstruct the area. Both surgeries were unsuccessful, however, and led to unanticipated bleeding.

“The doctors now plan an approach that does not involve the risk of unplanned bleeding,” Ebert, a film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times since 1967, says. “If all goes well, my speech will be restored.”

This cancer survivor, who says we spend too much time hiding illness and is proud to be back in the spotlight, has also co-hosted the Ebert & Roeper television show with fellow Sun-Times columnist Richard Roeper since 2000. Film critics and filmmakers have been filling in for Ebert during his recovery.

Britney Spears, fresh out of rehab and back in the spotlight, is explaining why she publicly shaved her head back in February, following a rampage of bizarre behavior.

Here is the so called explanation.

A friend of Spears says the pop star shaved her head as a tribute to her aunt who died from cancer. The pal states Spears was definitely suffering from postpartum depression at the time and the bold hair maneuver was an act of solidarity.

“Britney’s aunt had just died of cancer,” says this friend. “She was feeling very guilty because she hadn’t been there with her, she was overwhelmingly depressed and she shaved her head in solidarity.”

Actress Gwyneth Paltrow has lost five family members to cancer — and she fears the disease may one day strike her. So she’s taking action now and is trying to beat back the cancer curse that seems to loom over her loved ones.

Ever since losing her famous father in 2002 to throat cancer, Paltrow has been approaching life from a biological perspective.

“Cancer has been the curse of my family,”she said. “I am challenging these evil genes by natural means. I am convinced that by eating biological foods it is possible to avoid the growth of tumors. I began this crusade soon after my father’s death. Since then the fight against tumors has been my mission.”

Paltrow and her husband, Coldplay’s Chris Martin, have embraced a strict vegetarian diet for their young family, and they hope their commitment to healthy eating will ward off the illness they fear may be headed right for them.

Hank Bauer, wounded World War II Marine and New York Yankees legacy, died on February 9 at the age of 84. The cause of death was cancer.

Bauer, who managed the 1966 Baltimore Orioles to their first World Series title, was a three-time All-Star Yankees outfielder during his time with the team that won nine American League pennants and seven World Series titles in just 10 years. Bauer, a Yankees fixture from 1948-59, set the Series record with a 17-game hitting streak. His record still stands.

Yankees owner George Steinbrenner says, “Hank Bauer is an emblem of a generation that helped shape the landscape of our country. He was a natural leader and a teammate in every sense of the word, and his contributions went well beyond the baseball field. His service to the Yankees, his country, and his family shows why I have been so privileged to call him a friend.”

Bauer’s baseball accomplishments, which also include playing two seasons with and later managing the Kansas City Athletics and scouting for the Yankees and Royals, are not his only claims to fame. He also earned two Bronze Stars and two Purple Hearts for his courageous dedication to the United States.

Enlisting in the Marines shortly after Pearl Harbor, Bauer was wounded in Okinawa when he was hit in the leg by shrapnel just 53 days after he arrived on the island with 64 other men. “Only six of us came out,” said Bauer who signed with the Yankees minor league after his discharge and sported his Marine Corps crewcut throughout the baseball career that landed him with the likes of Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, and a young Roger Maris.

During the same week Bauer lost his life, two other players of his time also passed away — Steve Barber, who pitched for Bauer in Baltimore and Lew Burdette, who played against the Yankees in the 1957 and 1958 World Series.

Bauer is remembered by many.

“I am truly heartbroken,” says Berra. “Hank was a wonderful teammate and friend for so long. Nobody was more dedicated and proud to be a Yankee, he gave you everything he had.”

Rep. Charles Norwood, a Georgia dentist who rode to office on a Republican tidal wave in 1994, died Tuesday (Feb. 13, 2007) after battling cancer. Rep. Norwood, 65, died at his home in Augusta, Ga. House members paused for a moment of silence in his honor.

Rep. Norwood suffered from a chronic lung disease and later developed metastatic cancer that spread from his lung to his liver.

The vacancy created by Norwood’s death will be filled by a special election, to be held no fewer than 30 days after the vacancy is created, according to state law.

Barbara McNair, 72, started out as a nightclub singer and moved into film and TV as more opportunities for black women opened up in the 1960’s. She eventually hosted her own show in 1969 called The Barbara McNair Show.

Her best known film role came as Sidney Poitier’s wife in the classic crime drama They Call Me Mister Tibbs. She played on Broadway, posed in Playboy and was cast along Elvis Presley in his last film, Change of Habit. She also accompanied Bob Hope on a tour of Vietnam.

Barbara died on Sunday after a long battle with cancer, her husband said.