Pavarotti 'reacting well to therapy'

Italian opera star Luciano Pavarotti is “fighting like a lion” against his pancreatic cancer and is reacting well to therapy, his wife told an Italian newspaper.

“I can now say he is doing well,” Nicoletta Mantovani said in an interview published today in Italian daily La Stampa.

The 71-year-old singer underwent surgery after doctors discovered a malignant pancreatic mass last year.

“He’s reacting well to a fifth cycle of radiotherapy, he’s fighting like a lion and he has never lost his heart, also because a family he adores is by his side,” Mantovani said.

“He’s determined and results are encouraging,” she said. “Despite the heavy treatment he has not lost weight – which by the way he would have liked – or his hair.”

Mantovani was speaking from the Italian resort island of Ischia, where she picked up a music award for her husband. She said she intended to deny speculation that Pavarotti was near death.

Earlier this month, an Italian women’s magazine, Diva e Donna, quoted one of Pavarotti’s daughters, Giuliana, as saying that her father “knows he will die soon”.

Mantovani said the quotes were taken out of context and falsified.